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APOCALYPTIC 

cP-50 
HISTORY. 



BY 



Samuel Allin. 



And v)l\en ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars t 
be not troubled; for these things must needs be; but the end 
is not yet, Mark xiii. 7. 



PLYMOUTH 
1871. 



S. THORNE, PRINTER, BOOKBINDER, ETC., PLYMOUTH. 



^M^vw^r. tV [yQjudliUy^ Owfo^voO d£~i' , ia^w. 



PREFACE. 

Our volume should have made its appearance a few days 
earlier ; and we must tender an apology in the excuse that the 
great war having been interrupted by an armistice, and this 
armistice being lengthened out with a view to the conclusion of 
peace, we were anxious to see the result of the negotiations 
before proceeding to the close of our retrospect. 

We beg our readers to remember that on no part of prophetic 
exegesis do we pretend to decisiveness. We do not presume to 
maintain that the interpretation must in any case be this or that. 
We do no more than conjecture. Whether or not these conjec- 
tures be well grounded and well aimed is a matter for the 
discrimination of the reader. We shew the probable correctness 
of the proffered construction, and here is the limit of our 
province. As to any plausibility or certainty there may be in 
our statements, we leave it to the unbiassed reflection of an 
unprejudiced public. 

The previous apportionment of our space has precluded our 
contemplated observations on the Difficulties in the East. We 
wished also to see the upshot of the Black Sea Conference. 

Two or three remarks may be introduced here. There are 
indications of a future alliance between several Powers of 
Europe in behalf of debilitated Turkey and discomfited France ; 
but of such a confederation England should be wary. England 
has no business joining the unclean spirits of the beast and the 
false prophet to fight the battles of superstition, and blasphemy, 
and imposture. Mahometanism, like Romanism, is doomed; 
and if Turkey will not disavow the delusion, she, as an Empire, 
must shiver into fragments. But what should be done in refer- 
ence to Eussia ? The neutralization of the Black Sea may be, 
perhaps, of shadowy importance. Eussia, however, should not be 
allowed to absorb Turkey, nor to seize Constantinople, nor to 



11. 

interfere in the Holy Land. Other arrangements could be made. 
As to the Holy Land itself, it is disgustingly anomalous 
that Jerusalem and all the sacred places of our Lord should be 
held by a people who prohibit the New Testament, aDd brand 
Him as an impostor. The abomination of Moslem government 
should be swept away from the Holy Land. And in any political 
dispositions for that region, regard should be had to the pros- 
pective settlement of a self-ruling and independent nation, 
which might be at once a barrier to Northern aggression, and a 
sentinel on the road to the East. 

The recent war conveys an impressive lesson to our own 
country. France thought herself quite capable of self- 
defence, and of worsting Prussia in conflict. She trusted 
to her Chassepot, to the Mitrailleuse, to the fact that she 
had won before, and was an intensely military nation. But 
events have shewn how misplaced was her confidence — how 
hollow were the foundations on which she rested. When God 
arises, the boasted strength of nations is as vanity. And in 
what does England trust ? In her iron bulwarks, and her belt 
of ocean ? It were the easiest thing for the Supreme Being to 
scatter and sink, or allow to be scattered and sunk, all that fleet 
which England counts her glory and her strength, and make her 
dashing billows worthless. England has been invaded, and 
might be again. It is well to put the organization of both army 
and navy in the highest possible state of perfection, so long as 
nations will have fleets and soldiers. But let our trust be in 
these subordinately, as the nation's instruments of self-defence, 
and for the protection of right. So long as God is on our side 
we are safe. He will be on our side if we steer clear of Popery 
and Infidelity, and study to keep his commandments. But if 
the face of God be set against us, nothing will avail for our 
deliverance. The best-contrived and strongest appliances will 
be ruined by miscarriage and infatuation. * 1 Some trust in 
chariots, and some in horses ; but we will remember the name 
of the Lord our God." 



APOCALYPTIC 



HISTORY. 




INTRODUCTORY. 

T is not without considerable difficulty that we 
have prevailed upon ourselves to write upon 
this much-discussed and interesting subject. 
On the one hand, we fear lest we should be 
presumptuous in advancing to deal with a 
question upon which, though revealed in the language of 
prophecy, we are very liable to be mistaken ourselves, and 
to mislead our readers. On the other hand, we fear lest, 
in neglecting to deal with this subject, we should fail to 
perform our duty, believing, as we do, a great number of 
erroneous opinions to obtain — opinions which we consider 
to be adverse to the teaching of revelation, and leading 
the religious public to regard the future in a light which 
is underived from the inspired penman, but which is the 
emanation of the pretty and plausible conjectures of a 
forward and filibustering intellect. 

After much mental contention, we have come to the ma- 
ture opinion that the main facts of the Millennium, both with 
regard to its Antecedents, its Characteristics, and its Con- 
sequences, are clearly set forth in the book which is 
generally known as " The Eevelation," written by the 
Apostle St. John, and that, as it respects general outlines, 
we need not greatly err. Therefore it is that boldly, we 
hope not in any wise presumptuously, and humbly and 
reverently, but we hope not with any feelings of distract- 
ing uncertainty or obsequious dread, we approach unto 

B 



6 



this great subject. We believe that certain things relating 
to the latter stages of the world's biography were lumin- 
ously pourtrayed to the mind of St. John on the Isle of 
Patmos, and were by him embodied in the book which 
bears his name. We lay hold of these protruding features, 
and endeavour, by the aid of these signal posts and beacon 
lights of the world's future path, feebly and imperfectly 
to delineate some of the more interesting and momentous 
windings of human history. All things that are written 
are for our instruction, and we think that in endeavouring 
to understand certain portions of the last part of the 
Divine Eevelation we are neither unduly speculative nor 
criminally curious, but are, in a most legitimate way, 
exercising our judgment and thought. But let us move 
along closely by the revealed text : otherwise we shall 
soon miss our path. May the Divine Spirit be our helper 
and guide, and so assist us in our perusals and enquiries 
that the employment may redound to the glory of the 
Eedeemer, whose cause shall eventually triumph in the 
renovation of our fallen world, and in the salvation of all 
his chosen ones beyond the power of sin or decay ! 

And whatever we may see fit to advance, let us premise 
and forewarn that of nothing can we be absolutely cer- 
tain. We cannot pretend to be. All we can lay down is 
that such and such events are probable, perhaps very prob- 
able, from the open signifying of the Scriptural passages. 
But beyond this we will assert nothing. We think it 
likely, from the tenor of the verses, that such and such 
will be prominent circumstances of history, and 
we produce our reasons. Here we rest. This is our 
undertaking ; and this is all we attempt. Our readers 
can ponder for themselves. 

We take the Eevelation by St. John to be a prediction, 



7 



under the enigma of seals, etc., and of various other sym- 
bolical terms, of all the principal events which should 
happen upon the earth from the age in which St. John 
lived to the end of the world. And we think that through- 
out this metaphorical narrative, and amidst a bulky mass 
of what is dark and mysterious, we may find a succession 
of luminous points by which to trace the general road 
through time, and discover many objects of pre-eminent 
interest. Let us then, with reverence, proceed to consider 
the prophetic symbols of this book, and take a survey of 
those events of history which are their most probable 
counterpart. 



PROSPECTIVE. 

We read in the Eevelation which was given to St. John 
of a succession of occurrences, beginning with the days 
of the Apostle himself, and reaching down to the era 
immediately preceding the Millennium. We have, first, 
seven Epistles ; then, seven Seals ; after that, seven 
Trumpets ; and last of all, seven Yials. The churches 
to whom the epistles were written flourished in the 
days of St. John; the vials will probably be poured 
out a short while before the commencement of the thousand 
years ; and the whole of the intermediate time is occupied 
by the events connected with the seals and the trumpets. 

The epistles, the seals, the trumpets, and the vials run 
into one another, and are intimately associated. After the 
epistles had all been written, the Apostle beheld a book, 
sealed with seven seals j and no one could loose the seals 
and open the book but the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. 
He prevailed ; and as each successive seal was loosened, 
very remarkable events took place upon the earth. The 



8 



chief characteristic of the seventh seal is the providing 
of seven angels with seven trumpets. The seven trum- 
pets belong to the seventh seal, and seem to be born 
of it, to have their origin in it, and are, in fact, the main 
event of the seal. The sounding of these seven trumpets 
is marked by many tremendous and awful circumstances. 
The last three trumpets, in particular, introduce a series of 
events most wonderful and mysterious. Between the sixth 
and seventh trumpets there is a considerable pause, there 
is much agitation upon the earth, and events rapidly pro- 
gress. But the most portentous of all is the sounding of 
the seventh trumpet. With this trumpet all the remaining 
events of the world till the era of the Millennium appear 
to be connected. It includes the seven vials — seems to 
commence before them, and to last until they are all dis- 
posed of. Indeed, I am not sure that the Millennium 
itself, and the circumstances attending the Day of J udg- 
ment, are not all embraced in the sounding of the seventh 
trumpet. At any rate, the seven vials have their origin 
in the seventh trumpet, and are one of its most prominent 
features. 



THE SEVEN SEALS. 

In the first seal we have a White Horse, and a great 
Conqueror sits upon it. This appears to be the Boman 
Emperor Trajan, who began to reign in the year 98. He 
conquered Armenia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, and other parts 
of Asia. Perhaps no Emperor ever lived who was so 
successful in conquest. 

At the second seal there is a Bed Horse, This colour 
seems to signify bloodshed. To him who sat on it was 
given a " great sword." During the reign of Vespasian 



9 



there was terrible war and bloodshed throughout the whole 
of the western world. 

The third seal opens with a Black Horse. An emblem 
of mourning and distress. As the rider held a 11 pair of 
scales," the period was evidently one of great scarcity. 
Such a time of distress was experienced in the Eoman 
Empire from the Emperor Severus to Philip the Arabian, 
A.D. 198 to A.D. 248—50 years. 

When the fourth seal was opened there appeared a Pale 
Horse. It signifies famine, pestilence, and death. Death 
was the rider, closely followed by Hell, or, as the original 
is, Hades. (Those who have perused our Discourse on 
" Hades " will understand that it is the place where the 
souls of the departed remain from death to the resurrection). 
From Trajan downwards, it may well be said that a fourth 
part of mankind died by sword, famine, pestilence, and 
wild beasts. These scourges made especial havoc from 
the Emperor Decius to Diocletian — 36 years. 

The fifth seal opens with a view of the Souls of the 
Martyrs. Under the Roman Emperors there raged ten 
fierce persecutions against the Christians. The last of 
these was in the reign of Diocletian. This was the most 
savage and unrelenting persecution of all. It was the last 
grand effort of Paganism to exterminate Christianity. 
Multitudes, perhaps tens of thousands of Christians suffered 
death in all its horrid forms in those bitter days of Pagan 
cruelty, and the Apostle beheld the souls of the Martyrs 
before the Throne, and praying that their blood might be 
avenged. 

At the sixth seal there is great Consternation and Alarm, 
followed by sweet Tranquillity and Peace. The Roman 
Emperor, Constantine the Great, abolished Paganism 
throughout his empire, and established the Christian 



Eeligion. This is represented under the most striking and 
terrible imagery. Paganism trembled with the most utter 
dismay; and the consternation and alarm of Pagans at 
the overthrow of their religion, may represent the conster- 
nation and alarm which will prevail when the Lord comes 

to judgment. That the language at the end of chap. vi. 
refers to the last judgment there can be no doubt, what- 
ever circumstance of human history it may, in the first 
place, indicate. Chap. vii. probably represents the hap- 
piness and tranquillity of the Church subsequently to the 
cessation of persecution, and the establishment of the 
Christian faith. It leads us on likewise to the blessedness 
of the redeemed in Heaven, when all the storms of earth 
are hushed, and they are placed for ever in the presence of 
God and the Lamb. 

The Seven Trumpets have their origin in the seventh seal. 
The chief feature of this seal is the endowment of seven 
angels with the seven trumpets, and the sounding of them. 



THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 

In considering the seals we have brought our history down 
to the epoch of the great Eoman Emperor Constantine, 
who flourished from A.D. 306 to 337. 

FIRST TRUMPET. 

At the sounding of the first Trumpet there 
is an outpouring of Hail and Fire, mingled with 
blood. " Hail" is to be taken figuratively, as also " blood h 
for a vehement, sudden, powerful, hurtful invasion ; and 
" fire " betokens the havoc of an enraged enemy. The 
symbol seems to refer to the invasion of the Eoman Empire 
by barbarians. Alaric, at the head of the Gothic hordes* 



11 

overran a large portion of the Eoman territories, every- 
where causing great destruction and intense misery. 
They entered Italy, and besieged the city of Eome. So 
terrible was the distress that mothers devoured their own 
offspring, and soldiers ate their slaughtered comrades. 
The city fell, and was given up to pillage and infamy. 

SECOND TEUMPET. 

The second Trumpet is signalised by a great Burning 
Mountain. There appears to be here a continued reference 
to the repeated and dreadful irruptions of the barbarous 
nations. Attila, who commanded the invading Huns, 
called himself the " Scourge of God," and the " Terror of 
men." He spread great terror and desolation in Italy, and 
put the Emperors under tribute. A " mountain " probably 
signifies a great force and multitude of people. The " fire " 
is no doubt the fire of war. Yery likely the 11 sea " denotes 
"Western Europe; and at this period vast numbers of 
people in this part of the Continent were either slain, or 
died from want. A " ship " is often the emblem of a state 
or republic. And many states were destroyed by these 
inhuman conquerors. We have now come to about the 
year A.D. 453. 

THIED TEUMPET. 

The third Trumpet sounds, and there appears a great 
Burning Star, called Wormwood. Wormwood, of course, is 
essential bitterness, and the imagery seems to pourtray 
strife, contention, war, persecution, and the most agonising 
distress. It is not improbable that Africa may be intended 
by the " rivers." Genseric was at this time king of 
the Vandals. These barbarian hosts invaded Italy, 
and captured Eome, about A.D. 460. Genseric abandoned 



12 



Eome to the licentiousness and brutality of his followers, 
and they there revelled in plunder and debauchery. Those 
were bitter days for Italy. But the excesses of Vandalism 
were also practised in Africa. The wife of the governor 
of Egypt was an Arian, and to defend himself against his 
superiors, who disapproved of her heresy, he invited 
Genseric to that continent. The Vandals came, and 
established a kingdom, which lasted till the year 533* 
Bitter trials fell to the Christians under these Vandal 
kings ; and under Arianism and Vandalism, vast multi- 
tudes perished. The whole figure appears to represent a 
combination of heretical Arianism and savage Vandalism. 
Nothing was ever more cruel and unrelenting than Arian- 
ism — nothing more inconsiderate and merciless than the 
work of the Vandals. 

FOURTH TEUMPET. 

At the sounding of the Fourth Trumpet (Chap. viii. 12), 
the Sun, Moon, and Stars, are smitten. The irruptions of 
the barbarian hordes seem still to be the subject of our 
figure. " The sun, moon, and stars," probably represent 
the people who live under them. They are so overwhelmed 
with calamities that all the firmamental lights appear to 
have lost their brightness. The dark body of invasion, 
oppression, and desolation, have eclipsed the light of inde- 
pendence and freedom, and all the blessings of peace ; the 
light by day has lost its lustre, and the silvery moonbeams 
their brilliancy. Odoacer, at the head of the Heruli, 
completed the destruction of the Eoman Empire. He took 
the Emperor prisoner, overturned his government, and 
proclaimed himself " King of Italy.'' This was the end of 
the " Empire of the West," and out of it arose ten nations, 
as predicted by Daniel. (Chap. ii). A.D. 476. 



13 



FIFTH TUEMPET. 

At the sounding of the fifth angel (Chap, ix), there came 
forth upon the earth a great number of Locusts, They 
ascended from the bottomless pit, and the pit had been 
opened by a star, which fell from heaven. The "star" is 
certainly an angel; and as he " fell from heaven," he was 
no doubt a good angel. The "bottomless pit" is not the 
" lake of fire," but a figure. By the " locusts " it is prob- 
able we are to understand the Persians, the " pit " having 
been their habitation, and the locality from which they 
issued. The term "locusts" betokens a numerous and 
very hurtful people, such as the Persians then were. The 
people who mostly suffered from this hostile nation were 
the Jews. It is observable that the locusts were not per- 
mitted to kill the people, but only to torment them. This 
was just the kind of suffering the Jews endured from the 
Persians. Yery few were killed, but they were otherwise 
most severely persecuted. Some were put to death ; and 
all had to submit to the most galling indignities. We 
notice that only those were to be injured who had not the 
seal of God in their foreheads. These were the Jews who 
would not believe in the Messiah. The appearance of the 
locusts (verses 7-10) exactly suits the Persians. Their 
king was " Abaddon," or " Apollyon." This name signifies 
" destroyer," and is an apt designation of the Persian king. 
This Abaddon is different from the " dragon," or " Satan." 
The time of these locusts is said to be " five months." 
Five prophetic months are 75 common years. These 75 
years probably ended either at the year 551, or about A.D. 
589. The main storm abated by A.D. 551, but the perse- 
cution did not fully end till the year 589. 

SIXTH TRUMPET. 

The sixth angel sounds, and we behold a vast multitude 



14, 



of Horsemen. In the great river Euphrates, " four angels ' 
are said to have been bound. And the command now went 
forth that they should be loosed. From their having been 
"bound," we infer that these were four evil angels. As 
the angels issued from the " Euphrates," we gather that 
the Horsemen would operate in the western region of Asia. 
The " Horsemen " appear to have been the impetuous Sara- 
cens, to whom the description fully applies. And the " four 
angels " would seem to impersonate four of the most emi- 
nent Saracen Caliphs — heads, kings, or leaders. The 
breastplates of the horsemen were red, yellow, and blue» 
or like fire, brimstone, and hyacinth. "Fire, smoke, and 
brimstone" came out of their mouth. They fought with 
terrific rage, fierceness, and force. The power of the 
horses was in the tail as well as the head; — the riders 
fought in retreating as well as in advancing. Perhaps the 
first angel was Mahomet, and the other three the caliphs 
who succeeded him. But as they all appear to have been 
terrible warriors, the " four angels " may be Ali, Abubeker, 
Omar, and Osman, who immediately succeeded Mahomet, 
and spread the Mahometan religion far and wide. The 
four angels were to endure for " an hour, a day, a month, 
and a year." This specification of time demands particu- 
lar attention. The time here expressed is without doubt a 
prophetic period. Now prophetic numerals are to be 
multiplied 196 times. A prophetic day is 196 common 
days. Agreeably to this multiplication, the whole period 
of the Horsemen was about 211 years. If this 211 years 
commences at A.D. 551, it will terminate in A.D. 762. 
But if we date from the year 589, the epoch closes at A.D. 
800, when Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was the ruler 
of Western Europe, and instituting a new line of Kings. 
The army was stated to number 11 two hundred millions." 



15 



This may refer to the whole number engaged during the 
period, or it may denote an innumerable multitude. We 
may observe that the Saracens, under the four first Caliphs 
after Mahomet, conquered an immense territory. All 
Northern Africa, with Palestine, Syria, Persia, and other 
adjacent countries, fell into their hands. The number 
slain by these terrible horsemen can scarcely be computed. 



THE FULFILMENT OP THE MYSTERY. 

The tenth chapter of the book of Eevelation reveals an 
event which happens between the sounding of the sixth 
and seventh trumpets. The sixth angel having sounded, 
there is a pause before the appearance of the angel with 
the last trumpet, and a " mighty angel " now M comes down 
from heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow upon 
his head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of 
fire." He "set his right foot upon the sea," whence the 
first beast afterwards issued, " and his left upon the earth," 
from which the second beast came. His voice was as 
when " a lion roareth," and while he cried, seven thunders 
uttered their voices." The apostle was ordered to seal up 
the utterances of the seven thunders, and "write them not/ 
The angel now " lifted up his right hand toward heaven, 
and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who 
created the heaven, and the things that are therein, and 
the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea, and 
the things that are therein, that there should be no more a 
time. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, 
while he shall sound, the mystery of God shall be fulfilled, 
as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."* 

In the days of the seventh angel, while he shall sound, 
the mystery of God is to be fulfilled. Now the seventh 



Wesley's translation. 



16 



trumpet is very different to all that go before it. It lasts 
a great deal longer than all the seals and the six preceding 
trumpets together, and comprehends a very long series of 
the world's events. It commences in chap, xi., immediately 
after the pause which succeeds to the sixth trumpet, and 
appears to last till the close of the millennium. 

The mystery of God appears to be unfolded from chap, 
xi. 13, and in the following chapters. What relates to the 
"beasts" appears to be connected with " the mystery of 
God." This mystery is to be fulfilled ; but it will not be 
fulfilled whilst the " woe " remains upon the earth, to 
which we have especial reference in chap, xiL 12, and in 
the whole of the 13th chapter. But the mystery will be 
fulfilled " in the days of the seventh angel." It seems 
that the vials of chap. xvi. must first be poured out, and 
then comes the joyful fulfilling of the mystery of God — 
chapters xvii— xix. 

There can be little doubt but that the " mystery of God" 
is that mystery which the Almighty suffers to hang upon 
the earth during the existence and operations of the 
Soman Catholic Church. And indeed, it seems one of the 
greatest mysteries how a body of men should be allowed to 
arrogate to themselves the name of " Church," " the only 
Church " — to persecute and slay the humble witnesses of 
Jesus — to destroy the Bible — to be the receptacle and 
embodiment of every kind of evil, to stamp out every other 
name which professed Christ, to take to itself the whole 
domain of Christendom, and proclaim itself the only suc- 
cessor and representative of the Saviour and his apostles, 
and reign as Christ's Church with the terror of sword and 
fire, and every diabolical torture, — it is indeed a mystery. 
But whilst the seventh an^el sounds, this mystery shall be 
ulfilled. 



17 



Standing with one foot on the sea, and the other on the 
earth, the angel sware by him that liveth for ever and 
ever " that there should be time no longer," or " that 
time shall be no more," or, according to the rendering of 
Mr. Wesley, " that there shall be no more a time." 

There shall be no more a time — until when ? 
Evidently the reference is to the next verse. " But in the 
days of the seventh angel, the mystery of God shall be 
fulfilled." The meaning appears to be : Until the mystery 
of God is fulfilled, during the days of the sounding of the 
seventh angel, there shall be no more a time, A " time " 
will not elapse till the event happens. 

We learn that a fame, or chronos, is 1111 years, This 
number of years will not pass until the fulfilment of the 
mystery of God. What date must we now take as the 
commencement of this era ? We must bear in mind that 
the declaration is made immediately after the sounding of 
the sixth angel. And the epoch of the Saracens was 
about 211 years — terminating about A.D. 762, or 
A.D. 800. Mr. Wesley, however, thinks the sixth 
trumpet did not end until the year 847. Now as 
the angel of the tenth chapter makes this solemn oath and 
declaration in the pause which intervenes between the 
sounding of the sixth and seventh angels, it is evident that 
we must take the date of the ending of the sixth trumpet 
as the commencement of the " Time," which, before its 
termination, will witness the fulfilment of the mystery of 
God. 

There shall he no more a time, — It shall not be a whole 
time — not quite 1111 years. Before the expiration of this 
period, the mystery of God shall be fulfilled. Now if we 
consider the subsidence of the sixth trumpet and 
the appearance of the " mighty angel " as taking 
place about A.D. 762, the prophetic period, " a 



18 



time," would expire about the year 1873. If we 
take the year 800, it closes about the year AJD. 
1911. And if Mr. Wesley's date of A.D. 847, one 
thousand one hundred and eleven years will reach to the 
year 1958. If "a time," or " chronos," be really 1111 
years, we have no reason to doubt that the event referred 
to in the 7th verse will be accomplished before one of these 
dates is attained. Our own opinion inclines to the date 
1911. But be that as it may, it is evident that "there 
shall be no more a time " until the mystery of God is ful- 
filled. The world is clearly on the eve of tremendous 
events. Before one of the dates specified is reached, that 
" mystery" may be no more. But God will work in his 
own time, and in His own way. To Him be all glory for 
ever !* 

SEVENTH TRUMPET. 

The seventh and last angel sounds, and there is a 
concatenation of events which last till the consumma- 
tion of all things. We will only notice here that all 
the events which are described in the remaining 
part of the book of Eevelation are comprehended under the 
sounding of this angel. As soon as the angel sounded, 
therefore, " there were great voices in heaven, saying, 
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of 
our God and his Christ ; and He shall reign for ever and 
ever." This could not be said under the sounding of any 
preceding angel ; but during the time of the seventh 
trumpet the glorious period will arrive when the whole 
world shall bow to Christ ; and then He shall reign " for 
ever and ever." The four and twenty elders also " fell on 
their faces and worshipped God," and in praise said, " Thy 
wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they be 

* The above section was written in March, 1868. 



19 



judged, and to give a reward to thy servants the prophets 
and to them that fear thy name, small and great ; and to 
destroy them that destroyed the earth." AYe are not to 
suppose that this would take place as soon as the angel had 
sounded, but that it would happen during the time of his 
sounding. After a long series of events, running through 
many hundreds of years, and which are depicted in 
several succeeding chapters, these great circumstances 
would be witnessed — the day of wrath will come, the day 
of judgment; there will be a resurrection of the dead, and 
all shall stand at the bar of God. Then the prophets, and 
all who feared the name of God, with filial fear, shall be 
rewarded with eternal life ; and all, who, by their wicked 
conduct, were the means of destroying good upon the 
earth, and ultimately, and as a result of their ungodliness, 
" the earth " itself, themselves shall now be " destroyed," 
with an overwhelming and everlasting destruction, " from 
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. ,, 



THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 

Of the whole of the book of Eevelation, no chapter is 
more mysterious than the twelfth ; and although we may 
oiffer a few conjectures, the vision must still be considered 
as very much an enigma, and unravellable. 

The chief points of attention are — The woman, and her 
bringing forth a male child — the dragon — vjar in heaven — 
persecution of the woman by the dragon — and the woman's 
safety and deliverance. The account of the woman is, of 
course, figurative, but we believe it is not proper to seek 
to expound every circumstance, or incident, of a figure ; 
it is sufficient to show the general drift of the metaphor, to 
denote the leading facts or principles which it illustrates, 
and draw a general conclusion. 



20 



By " the woman " we are to understand, no doubt, the 
Church of Christ ; but we are at a loss for an historical 
circumstance by which to describe the birth of a " male 
child," and equally lost in attempting to explain the 
" child " and his " rule " by any lofty peak of circumstances 
or chain of commanding events. The only surmise which 
we shall volunteer is, whether the " male child " might not 
be brought forward during the pains and struggles of the 
Reformation from Popery, from the time of Huss and others 
in Germany, and Wy cliff e and the Lollards in England, to 
the Establishment of Reformation principles during the 
reign of King Edward the Sixth. Then we shall take the 
" male child " itself as denoting Protestant Freedom, which 
was born of the Christian Church during the pangs and 
troubles of the Reformation, and ever since has been im- 
periously ruling our own, as well as several other 
" nations." 

The "dragon" is declared in the ninth verse of the 
chapter to be " the devil," or " Satan." The former term 
is of Greek derivation — the latter of Hebrew; and both 
words signify " adversary," shewing that the devil, or 
Satan, who is the " dragon," is the great adversary, or 
foe, of the Christian Church, and of all its individual 
members. 

How (verses 7 — 12) the dragon had, previously to this 
time, been " in heaven," having " a place " there ; how, at 
this juncture of the Church's history, there could happen a 
" war in heaven," between the archangel Michael and the 
dragon ; and how the dragon was " cast out " of 
heaven, having no more any place there, and was thrown 
more emphatically upon " the earth," even more wrathful 
than ever before, is an impenetrable mystery — an occur- 
rence of the invisible world and a conflict of spiritual 



21 



powers which we cannot pretend to understand. Suffice ifc 
to know that there has been such a supernatural revolu- 
tion, such a hard-fought battle between angelic beings, 
and such a disastrous and irrecoverable defeat to the rebel 
chieftain. 

It is said that the dragon " persecuted " the woman, and 
sought to " devour " her child. But the woman " fled into 
the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared by God;" 
and the child " was caught up to God, and to his throne." 
The Christian Church, during the palmy days of Papal 
Eome, existed indeed in a " wilderness." Christians, during 
the whole of this period, were hunted down like beasts of 
the field, were banished from the rest of society, and had 
to live by themselves in secluded situations. Some found 
refuge in the valleys of the Alpine mountains and the fast- 
nesses of Piedmont, and others in similar situations in 
various parts of Europe. But Bohemia was more especially 
the resting-place of God's people, and they were preserved 
there, until the Reformation unlocked the door of their 
prison-house, and brought them forth to freedom and 
plenty. The " child " was laid hold of by the hand which 
rests upon the eternal throne, and was " caught up," being 
so upheld and upraised by the Divine arm that the strength 
and subtlety of Satan could inflict upon it no injury. 

The period of the stay of the woman in the wilderness 
is stated at " twelve hundred and sixty days," and in the 
14th verse it is said to be " for a time, and times, and half 
a time." Some prophetical students regard the period 
denominated by these two expressions as the same, namely, 
about 777 common years. Then the question arises, When 
does the period begin ? Probably it would be about the 
time of the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh angel. 

In a former section we have given three dates from which 
c 



22 



the sounding of the seventh trumpet might probably take 
rise, A.D. 762, A.D. 800, and A.D. 847. We considered 
about A.D. 800 as the most probable date. Now 777 
years from the year 800 will conduct us to the middle of 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the same number of 
years from the date 847 will bring us to the reign of King 
James the First. 

Now this was a period of unrelenting persecution. 
The unoffending Waldenses and Albigenses were merci- 
lessly and barbarously slaughtered. Numbers of others 
were martyred in various parts of Europe. In England, 
in the time of the Lollards, under Henry the Eighth, 
and under Queen Mary (who was privileged to sacri- 
fice her holocausts of victims) multitudes were burned 
alive for their religion. In the year 1572, what is known 
as St. Bartholomew's massacre happened in France. In 
one night, 60,000 innocent and helpless Protestants were 
surprised in their homes and on their beds, and cruelly 
murdered. In the year 1588, the Invincible Armada was 
fitted out from Spain, with all necessary instruments of 
torture to conquer England and exterminate Protestantism, 
but God interposed, the enemy was scattered, and British 
Christianity was saved. And our readers are familiar 
with the story of the Gunpowder Plot, and the marvellous 
deliverance which was then wrought out by Providence for 
our Eeformed Faith and its devoted promoters. 

The Church of Christ has truly, during this dark and 
ironed era, both in England and on the Continent of 
Europe, been in an unfruitful and toilsome " wilderness," 
and fiercely persecuted by her foes. But the woman has 
been " helped," and God has preserved and delivered his 
Church. 

Seeing all his efforts to destroy the woman fruitless, the 



23 



devil " was wroth, and went forth to make war with the 
rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and 
retain the testimony of Jesus." He determined to assault 
the true Christians wherever he found them, whether 
singly, or in societies, or as peoples. He would seek to 
injure them temporally, to overwhelm them with worldly 
trial, divest them, if he could, of civil privileges, kill 
them if he could, and, at any rate, try to shipwreck their 
souls. From the period we have named to the present 
time he has been incessant in these endeavours. He has 
often inflicted temporary mischief, but his action has 
always been overruled for ultimate blessing. Seeing his 
former plan of attacking with ponderous masses unavailing, 
he has had recourse to a guerilla warfare ; and he attacks 
and harasses Christians under all governors, Christian, 
Mahometan, and Pagan. The seed of the woman has 
been persecuted in heathen countries, in Mahometan 
countries, in Popish countries, and in so-called Protestant 
countries. The oppressive enactments against the Puri- 
tans under the Stuart Kings may be instanced as a sample 
of the persecution caused by Satan against the people of 
God in civilized countries, and in more modern times; 
and in Madagascar, only a few years ago, he saw fit to re- 
peat the horrible deeds of an inhuman age. But, through 
unceasing, deadly, and ever-varying battle, there is an in- 
crease to the number of those " who keep the command- 
ments of God, and retain the testimony of Jesus," and so 
it shall go on till the devil is chained, and evil is dissi- 
pated, and the earth is cleansed, and the world is filled 
with light and love. 



24 



THE TWO BEASTS. 

The two beasts form the subject of the 13th chapter of 
Eevelation. The first beast is described, verses 1-10, and 
the second beast from verse 11 to end of chapter. We 
take them in order. 

First Beast. — St. John says that he " stood upon the 
sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, 
having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten 
crowns," &c. The beast under contemplation would 
appear [to be the Latin Empire, which supported the 
Eoman, or Latin Church, down to the tenth century. The 
ten horns will then be the ten kingdoms which, as the old 
Eoman Empire crumbled and fell, emerged from the dis- 
solution, and established themselves in various parts of the 
ancient territories. These kingdoms gave their powerful 
support to the Eoman Church. It is said that the beast 
(with the horns) continued " forty and two months." And 
this duration, according to the prophetic method of reckon- 
ing, would be 1260 years. 

It was given to the beast " to make war with the saints, 
and overcome them ; and power was given him over all 
kindreds, and tongues, and nations." The Eoman was the 
dominant empire among the nations — the world was under 
its heel. And the Eoman Emperors, as well as the various 
kings who succeeded them, raised many and very violent 
persecutions against the followers of Jesus. Heathen 
Emperors sought to exterminate the Christians ; and when 
Eomanism took the place of Paganism, the kings who had 
become its professors and champions practised upon 
Protestants the same enormities which had befallen the 
Christians of an earlier age. Among those who protested 
against the errors of Popery, were the Albigenses in 
France, and the Waldenses in Piedmont; and in these 



25 



communities alone it is calculated that no less than 
1,000,000 persons have been put to death by Eomish mon- 
archs and at the instigation of the Eoman Church. From the 
time of the first institution of the Jesuits to the year 1580 — 
a space of 30 years — 900,000 Protestants fell by the hands 
of the common executioner. And during a period o^ 
30 years, the Inquisition destroyed 150,000 persons who 
preferred the Bible to the Pope. 

Second Beast. — " And I beheld another beast coming up 
out of the earth ; and he had two horns like a lamb, and 
he spake as a dragon," &c. (verse 11). Dr. Clarke is of 
opinion that this was another Latin Empire which was 
developed from the first empire. The former empire was 
temporal ; but this second one was spiritual, and consisted 
in the dominion of the Eomish priesthood. The power of 
the hierarchy ascended above that of Emperors, and led 
into captivity the Kings of the whole Latin world. The 
Church became at length entirely exempted from the civil 
power, and constituted another beast, entirely independent 
of the secular Latin Empire. 

This beast had " two horns." These are two distinct 
spiritual powers. There are two grand independent 
branches of the Eomish hierarchy. They are, first, the 
Monastic Orders, and secondly, the Parochial Clergy. By 
way of distinction, they are termed the Eegular and the 
Secular clergy. The monks were at first subject to the 
ordinary authorities of the church, but in process of time 
they became a spiritual power, entirely independent of the 
secular clergy, and exempt from episcopal jurisdiction. 

The beast had two horns " like a lamb." He came in 
the name of the lowly Jesus, professing to teach the 
religion of the New Testament. And he " caused the 
earth to worship the first beast." He caused the Latin 



26 



world to bow to the authority of the Latin Empire, with 
the revived Western Empire at its head. The former 
beast has been worshipped in the great power of the 
House of Bourbon, in Germany, France, and Spain. The 
"image" of the beast, spoken of inverse 15, appears to 
be the Head of the Church, the Pope. He has been the 
beast's image in temporal sovereignty, and the exercise of 
civil and political authority in all the nations of the 
Catholic world. 

The history of all the tortures, imprisonments, burnings, 
and massacres, which have been enacted upon the Protest- 
ants of the past by the Eoman Catholic Church is a full 
comment upon the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses. — This 13th 
chapter seems to be a corollary to chap. 12. The dragon 
persecuted the woman, and the beast was the instrument by 
which he destroyed the saints. 



THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL. 

After the description and the number of the second 
beast, there appear with the Lamb an " hundred and forty 
and four thousand " which have been redeemed from the 
earth, and which sing a new song before the throne. Then 
there flies in the midst of heaven an angel, " having the 
everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people." Closely following this angel is another, announc- 
ing the fall of Babylon. And again there follows another 
angel, declaring the terrible punishment of all those who 
should do homage to the beast and his image. The deliver- 
ances of these three angels denote the most prominent 
circumstances of the great Protestant interval.* They 

* What we denominate the Protestant interval is the period from the 
Reformation to the eve of the Millennium. 



27 



certainly will be the general dissemination of the Gospel, 
the overthrow of superstition, and the destruction of the 
upholders of falsehood. The Gospel had been preached to 
almost all, and perhaps all, the nations of the world by the 
apostles and their immediate successors. But the grandeur 
of the apostolic age had been eclipsed ; the original life of 
the truth had been stifled by the mummeries of Rome, and 
the professors of the Gospel had been heartlessly and 
savagely destroyed. The world had become wrapped in 
error and blood. But at the Eeformation the old light 
shone out again, the old truth revived, and its professors 
shook off their manacles and walked forth to freedom, 
freely distributing to all around that precious, priceless 
Gospel which in their own hearts lay treasured. The 
everlasting Gospel obtained at the Reformation, through an 
undaunted living ministry and the auspicious printing- 
press, a wide proclamation, and many lands sat down with 
thankfulness in the enjoyment of its blessings. But there 
was again a waning of the day — the light again grew dim, 
and it seemed as if the shade of night would again devour 
the sunbeams. Then Wesley and Whitfield arose, and re- 
suscitated the " everlasting Gospel." And from the day 
they first opened their lips for God and truth there is 
nothing to report but the continued spread and triumph of 
the words of the Book of God — the unceasing flow of the 
river, yea, the ever onward sweep of the torrent, of the 
water of life. Close upon Wesley sprung up Missionary 
Institutions, and they were the quick and necessary result 
of Wesley's evangelism. These Missionary Institutions 
must have a special symbol in the flying angel. They are 
the glory of our time. They carry the everlasting Gospel 
" to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." 
They are everywhere at war with error and sin, and are 



28 



the precursors of the fall of iniquity. The Gospel is going 
on, and winning its way. And through the agency of 
Bible Societies, Tract Societies, and a living ministry, the 
angel will still speed on in his glorious flight till truth has 
won the universal victory, and the Millennial Day has 
come. 



THE SEVEN VIALS 

Are poured out under the seventh trumpet. (Chap. xvi). 
They belong to the great interval now under contemplation, 
and probably last from about the time of there-publication 
of the Gospel to the overthrow of Babylon and the ushering 
in of the Millennium. They are successive dowupour- 
igns of the crushing strength of Deity, which takes off by de- 
grees the pride and power of Eome, and renders her more 
and more inert, until at last she reels and dies. 

FIRST VIAL. 

The first vial fell upon the earth ; and there came upon 
the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them 
which worshipped his image, a noisome and grievous sore. 
Mr. Fleming, who flourished 200 years ago, and wrote res- 
pecting the Eise and Fall of the Papacy, is of opinion 
that this denotes the judgments of God upon the founda- 
tions of the Papal power. The " earth " being that on 
which we build, and from which we are maintained, it is 
taken to represent the dominions and revenues which form 
the support of the Eoman Catholic Church. And by the 
pouring of the vial upon the earth we may understand 
the loss of the dominions and revenues of that church. 
It began at the Eeformation, and continued until the 
Eeformation had been embraced by several countries of 
Europe. Mr. Fleming remarks that " we may easily con- 



29 



ceive what a mortification this was to that party, when the 
pretended sanctity of their priests, monks, and nuns, was 
found to be mere cheat, and their miracles nothing else 
but lies or legerdemain ; and when their tales of purgatory 
were exposed to public contempt, and their pardons and 
indulgences would sell no longer ; and consequently, when 
the Pope and his red-hatted and mitred officers saw them- 
selves driven out of so great a part of their dominions — 
their seminaries for breeding their motley soldiers, of all 
denominations and orders, pulled down — and so much of 
their yearly revenues lost. Whence they are said to fall 
under a noisome and grievous ulcer, or sore ; being this 
way pained and vexed inwardly, and rendered contemptible 
to the whole world, that looked upon them as no better 
than vermin, and the plagues of mankind." This vial 
may be said to have commenced with Zwingle and Luther, 
and continued to the year 1566, when the various Be- 
formed Churches were settled. 

SECOND VIAL. 

The second vial was poured out upon the sea. At this 
time the Spaniards, who were the most violent and bigoted 
adherents of the Papacy, ruled the seas. But from about 
the year 1566 a desperate warfare ensued between Catho- 
lic Spain and the Protestant English and Dutch, and 
mainly on the ocean. In 1588 the Spanish lost their vast 
Armada, and never recovered their prestige again. The 
Eeformed interest was everywhere successful, and no Papal 
Power has ever since been mistress of the seas. The vial 
probably terminated about the year 1617, and lasted fifty 
years. 

THIRD VIAL. 

The third vial fell upon the " rivers and fountains of 



30 



waters." The Church of Eome now found it difficult to 
retain its ground even in the inland country of Europe. 
Under the Emperor of Germany, indeed, she for awhile 
rose into ascendancy, and Protestantism was threatened 
with extinction. But in 1630 the Swedish Gustavus 
Adolphus entered Germany, and conquered wherever he 
appeared. Two years afterwards he was killed, but his 
army continued victorious. Peace was made at Munster 
in 1648 ; and as the Swedish arms had prevailed against 
the Emperor, the Protestant cause was in all these parts 
triumphant, and the Church had rest and prosperity. The 
persecutors were vanquished, and the angel of the waters 
gives thanks to God for the righteous retribution which 
gave them blood to drink. 

FOURTH VIAL. 

The fourth angel poured his vial upon the sun, and power 
was given unto him to scorch men with fire — (Rev. xvi. 8 9.) 
Mr. Fleming is of opinion that the outpouring of this vial 
commences soon after the peace of Munster, and gives 
dates to show the probability that its duration would be 
about 146 years, or until the vear 1794. According to 
this calculation, Mr. Fleming himself, who wrote about 
A.D. 1700, would be living at the period of this vial. He 
considers the sun to betoken the French monarchy, France 
being then, as it has been since, the sun of the Papal 
world ; and the kings of France adopted the sun as their 
emblem — the symbol of French greatness and supremacy. 
The Papacy at this time also derived immense strength 
from the adhesion of the House of Austria, one branch of 
which was established on the throne of Spain. And Spain 
was at this time a mighty nation, holding, as a distant 
province, the Netherlands, to the north-east of France. 



31 



These nations, taken together, were the glory of Eoman 
Catholicism. 

The history of France during the period assigned by 
Mr. Fleming seems well to maintain the elucidation he has 
given ; and taking his conjectures together, and the date 
which he gave for the termination of the vial, the events 
which succeeded his death are even more startling than 
those which had happened in his lifetime. France, in the 
splendour of its Court, the brilliancy of its military organ- 
ization, and its tremendous influence upon surrounding 
nations, did indeed at this time resemble the shining of 
the firmament's greatest glory, The history of France is 
as the blaze of the mid-day sun. But it is said that " power 
was given unto him to scorch men with fire," and that 
11 men were scorched with a great heat." God made use 
of the French monarchy to scorch surrounding nations. 
Especially was France an instrument of torture to Spain — 
and to Austria, through Spain. She also brought suffering 
on Germanv and Holland, and even England felt the 
force of her mighty power. But the French monarchy, 
in scorching others, consumed itself. 

Eightly to understand this matter it may be useful to com- 
pare historical notes. The reigns which make up the period 
are those of Louis XIY., Louis XV., and Louis XYI. The 
predecessor of Louis XIV. was Louis XIII., who died in 
1643, five years before the peace of Munster. He was an 
inefficient prince, but had the advantage of the assistance 
of Cardinal Eichelieu, one of the most clever and powerful 
statesmen that ever conducted the affairs of France. His 
lively and skilful administration paved the way for the 
great splendour of the succeeding reign. 

Louis XIV was in his fifth year when he ascended the 
French throne. The Eegent, Anne of Austria (queen- 



32 



mother) appointed as her Minister Cardinal Mazarin, an 
Italian. Mazarin was odious to the French people, 
especially to the people of Paris. The oppressions pro- 
duced a civil war, known as that of the Fronde. And a 
writer states that " the women, who have always their 
part in the disturbances of France, had a conspicuous 
share in those of the Fronde." Mazarin was ultimately 
obliged to retire from the country. 

The King attained his majority in 1652, and Mazarin 
was recalled. A war soon ensued with Spain, which ended 
in 1659, by the peace of the Pyrenees. It was stipulated 
that Louis XIV. should marry the infanta, daughter of 
Philip IV., of Spain. 

In 1661, Mazarin died, and the sun of France began to 
shine in meridian splendour. And now began its scorch- 
ing influence upon the surrounding peoples. Louis XIV 
was able and energetic, and under him France was proud, 
aggressive, and victorious. On the death of Philip of 
Spain, Louis pretended that Spain had neglected to pay the 
dowry of his queen, and made war on that country. He 
invaded the Netherlands, (at that time held by Spain) and 
took the greatest part of the province. England, Holland, 
and Sweden formed an alliance against him ; and in 1668 
was signed the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis retained 
Flanders, which he had wrested from Spain. 

It was not long till Louis invaded Holland, and he would 
probably have conquered had not the inhabitants, by 
letting in the sea, inundated the country, and forced the 
French to retreat. 

Several powers were now jealous of the growing influ- 
ence of France. The Prince of Orange succeeded in 
forming an alliance between Austria, England, Spain, and 
Holland, in opposition to France ; but the arms of France 



33 



continued to prevail, and by a new treaty the greatest part 
of the Netherlands was ceded to the French King. But, 
immediately after the peace, Louis attacked Germany, 
seized Strasburg, and made a conquest of Alsace and Lor- 
raine.* He aided the Turks and Hungarians against 
Germany, so that, had it not been for the succour of the 
King of Poland, Vienna must have been captured by the 
Turks. 

The frown of Louis now rested upon the distressed 
Protestants of France. By the edict of Nantes, King 
Henri IV. had given full toleration to those who dissented 
from the Church of Eome, and for about 80 years they 
enjoyed security and quietness. But A.D. 1685, Louis 
XIV revoked that edict. Protestant worship was from 
that time suppressed, the Protestant churches were 
demolished, and all Protestant Ministers were banished. 
By this act France lost above 500,000 of her most indus- 
trious citizens ; and the name of Louis came to be held in 
abhorrence over a great part of Europe. 

In 1686, through the instrumentality of William, Prince 
Orange, (called to the throne of England in 1688), a war 
was commenced against France by the combined forces of 
Germany, England, Holland, and Spain. But France 
triumphed in every direction. In the Netherlands, in 
Germany, and in Spain, her armies were successful, 
and many of the most important towns on the Rhine 
were taken. Louis had now attained the summit of his 
glory. 

But a change came. The great King had inflicted dis- 
aster upon ("tormented") other countries, but the inflic- 
tion of this disaster had caused such a drain on his 

* This has ever since remained a part of France, but every one knows 
the Germans are now wanting it back. (Jan. 1871.) 



34: 



resources as impaired the stability of his own political 
fabric, and from that time it began to fail. His military 
expeditions had been attended with enormous expense, 
and the finances fell into disorder. And now began to 
droop the brilliancy of France, In 1697, Louis restored 
to Spain all the conquests of two wars, and several towns 
to the Emperor of Germany. 

Mr. Fleming wrote in 1700, and so far as his actual 
information could extend, there must end his apocalyptical 
thoughts. But he still ventured to " conjecture " or 
" guess " respecting the future ; and, as we have explained, 
he considered the vial then in progress would not end till 
about the year 1794, and that France would experience 
reverses and calamities of a serious nature. 

Peace with France was of very short duration ; and the 
embattled hosts were soon again upon the field. Mr. 
Fleming, alarmed at the rapid spread of French influence, 
her persecuting spirit, and overweening assumptions, ad- 
vised that England, securing as many allies as possible, 
should enter vigorously into a war with that great Catholic 
nation. He thought the vial would soon be at its height, 
and that something special should be done to check the 
career of the French monarch, and bring defeat to his 
armies. 

It was done. By the decease of Charles II. of Spain, 
without issue, the Crown devolved on the grandson of the 
king of France, and thus a close alliance between France 
and Spain was established. But a great confederacy was 
formed against these nations by other parts of Europe. 
England, Holland, and Germany, assisted also by Savoy 
and Portugal, declared war against France and Spain. 
And the succeeding wars gave Great Britain an opportunity 
of achieving some of the most signal successes of her 



35 



military history. In 1704 was fought the great battle of 
Blenheim by the Duke of Marlborough, in conjunction 
•with the forces of Germany, and the French were totally 
defeated. Shortly afterwards occurred the terrible conflict 
of Eamilies, between the English, under Marlborough, and 
the French, under Yilleroy ; and the English were again 
victorious. In this war, Gibraltar was taken from Spain, 
and has ever since remained in the possession of England. 

France was now clearly beaten, and in 1713 was con- 
cluded the treaty of Utrecht. By this treaty the Dutch 
obtained an extension of frontier ; to the Emperor of 
Germany was ceded a great part of Spanish Flanders ; and 
England gained from Spain, Gibraltar and Minorca, and 
from France, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay. 
Louis XIV died in 1715, in the 78th year of his age. 

His grandson, six years of age, succeeded him as Louis 
XV. This poor child was trained by his uncle in vice, and 
his reign was most wretched and unfortunate. By a war 
with England, beginning about A.D. 1750, France lost 
all her possessions in North America, and in India also 
she was vanquish ed. But it was at home that France 
fared the worst. Her king was indolent and profligate, and 
the history of France under Louis XY. is one unbroken 
scene of oppression and licentiousness. 

The king allowed himself to be completely in the hands 
of women of bad morals, and they accommodated him with 
ruling his kingdom. Some were more clever than others, 
and these swayed the sceptre. Foremost was Madame de 
Pompadour. She governed France. She nominated bishops, 
judges, and other chief officers, and managed all the affairs 
of State. What wonder that France withered I And after 
her, a woman still more worthless, Madame du Barri, di- 
rected the destinies of the French people. 



36 



It seems as if the infatuated court of France had set 
itself purposely to the task of compassing its own destruc- 
tion. A surer method of upsetting the throne and deso- 
lating the kingdom could not have been adopted. Tyranny, 
wantonness, and unbelief must of necessity bring empires 
to wreck. And under Louis XV. this was the tricolour 
of France. 

" The people were oppressed and miserable ; but no one 
thought of them except to try and drain money from 
them, either in the form of taxes to keep up the frivolities 
of the Court, or of rents to support the courtiers in their 
pleasures." * And as if to make the work of destruction 
doubly sure, countenance was given by the French Court 
and nobility to a set of infidel philosophers, whose business 
it was to sap the foundations of all religion, and thus un- 
joint the whole framework of human society. 

The French Court and aristocracy rolled in luxury. 
They set the people against them by a course of iron 
oppression ; and they petted the apostles of infidelity who 
taught the people that religion was a myth, that all were 
equal, and every man his own master. And these princi- 
ples spread with amazing swiftness among the Parisians. 
Paris was made thoroughly profligate and unbelieving. 
She is so still. The frivolities of the eighteenth century 
have been hugged to the heart of Paris, and she will not 
renounce them. 

At the same time, the Eoman Church abated nothing 
of her arrogant pretensions and her intolerant spirit. 
And her superstitions rather increased than otherwise. 

Debt, neglect, and misery everywhere — levity and wan- 
tonness supreme in the capital — unbelief seething among 



* Tytler's History. 



37 



the masses — Popery and Infidelity dividing France between 
them — a Be volution was inevitable! The Eevolution 
came, like the bursting of a volcano, the roll of the earth- 
quake, and France, unchanged, unrepenting, has been 
agonized and convulsed to this very day. 

Louis XV. died in 1774, and his grandson, as Louis 
XVI. , then twenty years of age, took possession of the 
kingdom. He was an amiable and judicious Prince, and 
earnestly set himself to rectify the affairs of state. But 
all was confusion. An evil had been done which could 
not be undone. On every hand was wretchedness and dis- 
content. He tried to save the country, but passions had 
been excited which could not be allayed ; and he failed. 
The armies of France were unsuccessful abroad, and this 
added to the irritation at home. The nobility and clergy 
had been exempt from taxation ; and when it was proposed 
to lay on them their share of the public burdens, they, as 
if demented, rose in indignation. Many wealthy French- 
men went to America and fought in behalf of the rebel- 
ling States, returning home thorough-going Eepublicans. 
The Jacobin* clubs were more and more active and 
threatening. France was drifting down the stream, and 
nearing the fatal cataract. 

The Eevolution came in horror. The excellent King 
and his innocent Queen were guillotined, and their un- 
offending son perished amid the squalor and filth of a re- 
volutionary dungeon. And the nobility of France sunk 
in a chasm of anarchy and blood. 

Thus we have in the career of the French monarchy 
the noon of glory, the gradual decline of day, and the 
dreadful sunset. France sowed the sure seeds of the 
harvest which she reaped. Multitudes of her very best 

* The Jacobins were the most inflammatory section of Republicans. 



38 



citizens were massacred and banished. Her church 
provoked a contempt for all religion through the mons- 
trosity of her assumptions. Her nobility revelled in 
luxury, and ground their inferiors to the dust for the sup- 
port of their extravagance. Voltaire and his brethren, 
upheld by the French Court, taught the populace 
there was no God or hereafter. They believed it, and 
acted upon it. And the cities of France, being steeped in 
debauchery, there could be no limit assigned to crime and 
sin. And as the result of these causes we find at the 
era of the Revolution royalty and nobility swept away — 
Church and State alike demolished — the goddess of Reason 
worshipped in Paris — society in chaos — Butchery and 
Anarchy the sovereign lords of France ! 

It is sad that men " blasphemed the name of God and 
repented not to give him glory." How true of France ! And 
far too true of Germany and England and other nations. 
Irreligion, profaneness, scepticism, formality, and a per- 
secuting spirit were lamentably prevalent during this age 
in Protestant, as well as Catholic nations. 



FIFTH VIAL. 

The fifth vial came upon the " seat of the beast ; and his 
kingdom was full of darkness." Taking the beast as de- 
noting the Romish Church, his " seat" is evidently where 
his throne is situated — where is the centre of his power 
and authority. That can be no other than the country of 
Italy, and, specially, the city of Rome. Accordingly, we 
must look for a scourge upon the city and territory of the 
Roman Catholic Church, and probably for trial and suffer- 
ing to the Ruler of that Church. This produces great dis- 
may in the domain of Catholicism, yea, deep anguish, for, 



39 



as the figure expresses it, they " gnawed their tongues for 
pain." Nothing could be more distressing to the Eoman 
Catholic Church, and especially to the priesthoed of that 
Church, and all who were connected with it by the ties of 
office, than calamities upon the seat of her government, and 
to her Sovereign Head. Yet it is said they " blasphemed 
God because of their pains." They censured the Almighty 
for permitting so aggravated an evil. And " repented not 
of their deeds." The terrible chastisement produced no 
amendment. They did not repent ; and they did not re- 
form either their manners or their doctrines. On the 
contrary, they perhaps grew more audacious in their 
iniquity, and fell to enacting dogmas even more fool-hardy 
and reckless than ever went before.* 

Mr. Fleming, in 1700, thought the fourth vial would end 
about A.D. 1794, and that the fifth vial, commencing about 
the time of the cessation of the fourth, would last until 
the year 1848. These prognostications are remarkable. 
Of course all futurity lay to Mr. Fleming in the dark 
unknown, but with the assistance of the key of revelation 
he was enabled to unlock this sealed apartment of the 
world's history, and to show to the generation then living 
the periods of two of the greatest revolutions it should fall 
to the lot of Europe to experience. 

The Eevolution of 1789 inaugurated a new era in the 
history of France — an era of combined democracy and 
despotism. There was then contracted a matrimonial 
alliance between the sword and freedom ; and France has 
ever since been the scene of agitation, tumult, and war. 
The kingdom was overturned by a party of moderate Ee- 
publicans ; these in turn had to succumb to men more im- 

* Witness the lately enacted tenets of the Immaculate Conception, 
and of Papal Infallibility. 



40 



moderate ; and these again to men who exceeded them in a 
frenzied zeal for liberty and equality. Then came a re- 
action. From excessive velocity to an extreme came a 
rewound. Men grew tired of red Eepublicanism, with its 
wholesale pillage and hands dyed in blood. And then a 
more moderate section dispossessed the foulest and most in- 
human tyrants that ever cursed this earth. And every 
party, as on the fitful, eddying stream of Parisian 
fervour it rose to power, proscribed and executed the 
party it displaced, so that the glorious guillotine was always 
at work, and Paris did nothing but bubble in commotion, 
and welter in its own blood. And throughout France 
reigned confusion, sequestration, and death.* 

They suppressed religious worship, abolished the Sab- 
bath, and blotted out God from the universe. Every tenth 
day was to be a day of rest, and the goddess of reason was 
exalted in the Cathedral of Notre Damef as the only 
object of adoration. Victor Hugo lately said that 
Paris was the centre of humanity, and his predeces- 
sors of '89 made reason the Eedeemer of Paris. It 
was the one God and the only Saviour. And thus 
elevating, ennobling, and blessed was the teaching of 
Voltaire ! And now see what Eeason and Fancy, the one 
the parent of superstition, J and the other of infidelity, || 

* Take as an example the victims of Carrier at Nantes. He destroyed 
32,000 persons, of whom were — children shot, 500; children drowned. 
1500; women shot, 264 ; women drowned, 500 ; priests shot, 300; priests 
drowned, 460 ; nobles drowned, 1400 ; artisans drowned, 5300 : died in 
prison by disease, 8000. The favourite plan of execution was to employ 
boats, choke them full of people, and sink them in the River Loire. 
Throughout France there perished by the Revolution no less than 
1,027,000 persons. 

t Our Lady. (In honour of the Virgin). The erection of this Cathedral 
was commenced in the reign of Philippe Auguste (1180), and was not 
completed for 200 years. 

J For are not the mummeries of Rome the mere result of fancy? 

1] For are not the phantasms of scepticism the mere result of arguing 
at you like, without regard to any other rule or law ? 



41 



and both the mightiest potentates of the realm, have 
done for France ! Sad was the day when France exiled 
its God and the Bible. Sad was the day when Faith 
expired. 

After Danton. Eobespierre, Marat, and their infamous 
companions had fallen into the pit which they had made, a 
Directory of five was appointed to conduct public affairs. 
As their new-fledged Republicanism was productive 
of such deplorable miseries at home, it was resolved 
to construct a safety-valve, and turn off the superfluous 
steam of discontent. The sleam of turbulence was to fly 
off in war, and the safety-valve of the nation should be 
— foreign conquest. Military expeditions would bring a 
relief from internecine strife. So the French Eepublic 
resolved on war, war with neighbouring nations, — it did 
not much matter whom — any one might be selected first, 
what they wanted was war and victory. 

The plan was a success. The Eepublic fought, fought 
heroically, and won. It turned its arms against Germany , 
and against Italy, and prevailed. But its wars, although 
they brought a charm for France, signed its own death- 
warrant. Paris was weary of its champions of liberty 
and monsters of cruelty, and ready at any moment to take 
refuge in the sword. Just one thing was now wanted to 
make all France contented and gay — the eclat of conquest. 
But with feuds among their leaders at home, and bungling 
among their commanders abroad, this felicity could never 
be attained. One man was needed to still the tempest, 
and bring out the gladdening sun. That man was forth- 
coming. War brought him to the surface. War developed 
his powers. War made him a leader, a conqueror. That 
was just the man tor France. The glory of conquest 
should be the panacea of all French disorders. The war 



42 



produced the warrior. France would sit at his feet, and 
place his yoke upon its neck. Its throne was open to the 
man who could hush its tumults, lead them out to battle, 
and fill their air with shouts of victory. And so it came to 
pass that Napoleon Buonaparte became the Emperor of the 
French, and the Arbiter of Europe. 

Partly through the revolutionary spirit which broke out 
in France, and partly through her aggressive warfare, 
every kingdom of Europe was now seized with turmoil and 
panic. Thrones were riven to their centre, and many 
tottered to their fall. The dynasties of Spain, Holland, 
Naples, and other States were overthrown; first a show 
of republicanism was made, and then the relatives and 
nominees of Napoleon were seated in the vacant palaces. 
The kingdoms of Austria and Prussia were put under ser- 
vitude, and Germany obeyed France. Far off Eussia felt 
the force of impetuous France ; and England for nearly 
twenty years bore the brunt of mortal combat — spent 
hundreds of millions of money, and incessantly, by sea and 
land, sought to check the career of the unscrupulous hero 
of France. The effervescence of extreme sentiment, and 
the domination of the levelling and ambitious Frenchman 
created a general topsy-turvy of European kingdoms. 
And the fruit of the period remains. Nothing could then 
be done without doing it to excess ; but the French Eevolu- 
tion and its consequences have taught lessons in gov- 
ernment of which the present generation is taking 
advantage. Constitutional rule and moderate principles 
have been learned by Europe. 

There appears an intimate association between the for- 
tunes of France and the Papacy. Eenown or disaster for 
the one is renown or disaster to the other. A vial was 
brought upon France, and then France was a vial to the 



43 



Papacy. France was convulsed, and was then used as an 
instrument to afflict Eome and the Eoman Church. And 
yet in the period of her greatness she has elevated that 
Church to all her former grandeur, and re-installed its 
Head in the full pomp and splendour he claimed. France 
wounded the beast and healed it. France trembled, and 
the Pope fell. France regained her firmness, and the Pope 
re-assumed his immortal sceptre. 

Napoleon commenced active life as a corporal in the 
army of the Eepublic. His eagle eye, iron nerve, and 
electric quickness soon brought him the most distinguished 
preferment. He was a grand military genius — the man at 
this juncture for France ; and his talents quickly raised 
him to the uppermost. His acuteness in strategy, 
sagacity and fervour on the field of battle, dex- 
terity in the execution of all manoeuvres, and, what is of 
immense consequence, ability of commanding the entire 
respect and devotion of every soldier he led, have, we 
believe, never been equalled. He was very speedily 
General Buonaparte, soon First Consul, and then Emperor. 

Italy was invaded in 1796, and there Buonaparte won 
his first laurels. He achieved the brilliant victories of 
Eivoli and Mantua, captured Milan, and made himself 
master of all Northern Italy. A Eepublic, named the Cis- 
alpine, was established, and the French, having broken 
the Austrian power in Italy, prepared to attack the Aus- 
trian Tyrol and Austria itself. After his victories in 
Northern Italy, Napoleon wrote as follows to the Directory; 
" Coni, Ceva, and Alexandria are in the hands of our 
army ; if you do not ratify their convention I will keep 
their fortresses and march upon Turin. Meanwhile, I 
shall march to-morrow against Beaulieu,* and drive him 



* Commander of the Austrian Army. 



44: 



across the Po ; I shall follow close at his heels, overawe 
Lombardy, and in a month be in the Tyrol, join the army 
of the Bhine,* and carry our united forces into Bavaria, 
That design is worthy of you, of the army, and of the 
destinies of France. 1 ' — And an army was ready to march 
on Rome. A few extracts will now show how through 
the instrumentality of France a vial fell upon the seat of 
the beast. 

" It had long been an avowed object of ambition with 
the Republican Government to revolutionize the Roman 
people, and plant the tricolour flag in the city of Brutus, 
and fortune at length presented them with a favourable 
opportunity to accomplish the design. 

" The situation of the Pope had become, since the French 
conquests in Italy, in the highest degree precarious. Joseph 
Buonaparte, brother to Napoleon, had been appointed 
Ambassador at the Court of Rome ; but as his character 
was deemed too honourable for political intrigue, Generals 
Duphot and Sherlock were sent along with him. The 
French embassy, under their direction, soon became the 
centre of revolutionary action; and those numerous 
ardent characters with which the Italian cities abound, 
flocked there as to a common focus, from whence the next 
great explosion of democratic power was to be expected. 
In this extremity, Pius VI., who was above eighty years 
of age, called to his counsels the great Austrian General 
Provera, already distinguished in the Italian campaigns ; 
but the Directory soon compelled the humiliated Pontiff 
to dismiss that intrepid counsellor. The French ambas- 
sador received instructions to delay the proclamation of a 
republic until the Pontiff's death; but such was the 



* An army moved to the Rhenish frontier for the invasion of the 
German states. 



45 



activity of the revolutionary agents that it was difficult to 
restrain immediate action. 

" The resolution to overturn the Papal government, like 
all the other ambitious projects of the Directory, received 
a very great impulse from the reascendent of Jacobin 
influence at Paris. One of the first measures 
of the new government was to despatch an 
order to Joseph Bonaparte at Eome, to promote, 
by all the means in his power, the approaching 
revolution in the Papal states ; and, above all things, to 
take care that at the Pope's death no successor should be 
elected to the chair of St. Peter. Napoleon's language 
to the Eoman Pontiff became daily more menacing. Ten 
thousand troops advanced from the Cis-alpine republic to 
St. Leon, in the Papal states. Seditious meetings were 
constantly held in every part of the city ; immense collec- 
tions of tricolour cockades were made to distinguish the 
insurgents, and deputations of citizens openly waited on 
the French Ambassador to invite him to support the 
insurrection. 

" In this temper of men's minds, a spark was sufficient 
to occasion the explosion. On the 27th December, 1798, 
an immense crowd assembled with seditious cries and 
moved to the palace of the French ambassador, where they 
exclaimed, 1 "Vive la Republique Romaine ' ? and loudly in- 
voked the aid of the French to enable them to plant the 
tricolour flag on the Capitol. The Papal ministers sent a 
regiment of dragoons to prevent any sortie of the revolu- 
tionists from the palace of the French ambassador ; and 
they repeatedly warned the insurgents that their orders 
were to allow no one to leave the precincts. Duphot, 
however, indignant at being restrained by the pontifical 
troops, drew his sword, rushed down the staircase, and 



46 



put himself at the head of one hundred and fifty armed 
Eoman democrats, who were now contending with the 
dragoons in the court-yard of the palace. He was im- 
mediately killed by a discharge ordered by the sergeant 
commanding the patrol of the Papal* troops ; and the 
ambassador himself, who had followed to appease the 
tumult, narrowly escaped the same fate. A violent 
scuffle ensued ; several persons were killed and wounded 
on both sides ; and, after remaining several hours in the 
greatest alarm, Joseph Bonaparte, with his suite, retired 
to Florence. 

" The Directory instantly resolved to make this catastrophe 
the pretext for the immediate occupation of Eome and 
overthrow of the Papal Government. Berthier, then com- 
mander-in-chief in Italy, received orders to advance 
rapidly into the Ecclesiastical States. And he, without 
an instant's delay, carried into execution the orders of the 
Directory. Six thousand Poles w ere stationed at Rimini 
to cover the Ois-alpine Eepublic, a reserve was established 
at Tolentino, while* the Commander-in-chief, at the head 
of eighteen thousand veteran troops, entered Ancona. 
Having completed the work of revolution in that turbu- 
lent district, and secured the fortress, he crossed the 
Apennines ; and appeared on the 10th of February before 
the Eternal City. The Pope, in the utmost consternation, 
shut himself up in the Vatican, and spent night and day 
at the foot of the altar in imploring the Divine protection. 
— The multitude tumultuously demanded the overthrow of 
the Papal authority ; the French troops were invited to 
enter ; the conquerors of Italy, with a haughty air, passed 
the gates of Aurelian, defiled through the Piazza del 
Popolo, gazed on the indestructible monuments of Eoman 
grandeur, and, amid the shouts of the inhabitants, the 



47 



tricolour flag was displayed from the summit of the 
Capitol. 

"But while part of the Roman populace were sur- 
rendering themselves to a pardonable intoxication upon 
the fancied recovery of their liberties, the agents of the 
Directory were preparing for them the sad realities of 
slavery. The Pope, who had been guarded by five hun- 
dred soldiers ever since the entry of the Eepublicans, was 
directed to retire into Tuscany ; his Swiss guard was relieved 
by a French one, and he himself ordered to dispossess 
himself of all his temporal authority. He said, 'You 
may employ force — you have the power to do so ; but know 
that, though you may be masters of my body, you are not 
so of my soul. Free in the region where it is placed, it 
fears neither the events nor the sufferings of this life. I 
stand on the threshold of another world ; there I shall be 
sheltered alike from the violence and impiety of this ?. r 
Force was soon employed to dispossess him of his 
authority ; he was dragged from the altar in his palace, 
his repositories all ransacked and plundered, the rings 
even torn from his fingers, the whole effects in the Vati- 
can and Quirinal inventoried and seized, and the aged 
Pontiff conducted, amid the brutal jests and sacrilegious 
songs of the French dragoons, into Tuscany, where the 
generous hospitality of the Grand Duke strove to soften 
the hardships of his exile. 

" But the Eepublican government, fearful that his 
virtues and sufferings might have too much influence on 
the continent of Italy, removed him to Leghorn in March, 
1799, with the design of transferring him to Oagliari, in 
Sardinia : and the English cruisers in the Mediterranean 
redoubled their diligence in the hope of rescuing the 
father of an opposite church from the persecution of his 



48 

enemies. Apprehensive of losing their prisoner, the 
French altered his destination ; and forcing him to traverse, 
often during the night, the Apennines and the Alps in a 
rigorous season, he at length reached Valence (France) 
where, after an illness of ten days, he expired, in the 
eighty-second year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of 
his pontificate. 

" But long before the Pope had sunk under the persecu- 
tion of his oppressors, Eome had experienced the bitter 
fruits of republican fraternization. Immediately after 
the entry of the French troops commenced the regular and 
systematic pillage of the city. Not only the churches 
and the convents, but the palaces of the cardinals and of 
the nobility were laid waste. The agents of the Directory, 
insatiable in the pursuit of plunder, and merciless in the 
means of exacting it, ransacked every quarter within its 
walls, seized the most valuable works of art, and stripped 
the Eternal City of those treasures which had survived 
the Gothic fire and the rapacious hands of the Spanish 
soldiers. 

" The Spoliation exceeded all that the Goths or Vandals 
had effected. Not only the palaces of the Vatican, and 
the Monte Oavallo, and the chief nobility of Eome, but 
those of Castel Gandolfo, on the margin of the Alban 
Lake, of Terracina, the Villa Albani, and others in the 
environs of Eome, were plundered of every article of 
value which they possessed. The whole sacerdotal habits 
of the Pope and Cardinals were burned, in order to collect 
from the flames the gold with which they were adorned. 
The Vatican was stripped to its naked walls ; the immortal 
frescoes of Eaphael and Michael Angelo remained in soli- 
tary beauty amid the general desolation. A contribution 
of four millions in money, two millions in provisions, and 



49 



three thousand horses, was imposed on a city already 
exhausted by the enormous exactions it had previously 
undergone. Under the direction of the infamous com- 
missary Haller, the domestic library, furniture, jewels, 
and even the private clothes of the Pope were sold. 
Everything of value became the prey of republic cupidity. 

" Nor were the exactions of the French confined to the 
plunder of palaces and churches. Eight Cardinals were 
arrested and sent to Civita Castellana, while enormous 
contributions were levied on the Papal territory, and 
brought home the bitterness of conquest to every poor man's 
door. At the same time, the ample territorial possessions 
of the church and monasteries were confiscated, and 
declared national property. All the respectable citizens 
and clergy were in fetters."* 

After awhile the Church recovered her lost possessions, 
and a succeeding Pontiff was invested with all the privi- 
leges and immunities of his ancient patrimony. 

"We think we ought to mention, under this vial, the de- 
struction of the Inquisition at Madrid. Spain has been 
for many years a stronghold of the Papacy, having only 
recently broken the galling fetters. In the Spanish capi- 
tal was located the Inquisition, in which the most horrid 
tortures were continually practised upon unoffending Jews 
and Protestants. Thousands upon thousands were in these 
gloomy dungeons most cruelly murdered. It was a " seat 
of the beast" — a seat of sanguinary authority — a place 
where, by imprisonment, the rack, and a barbarous death, 
Catholic Borne forced the Spaniards to submit to her 
power. In the year 1808 the French army invaded Spain, 
captured Madrid, discovered the Inquisition, put all the 
Inquisitors to death in their own infernal racks, broke up 



• Alison's History of Europe. 



50 



the machinery, and silenced for ever the shriek of the 
sufferer in the Papal Inquisition of Madrid. 

We now take our readers forward to the next great 
epoch of European agitation — the year 1848. And we 
find France again the troubled waters whence arose the 
storm of Eevolution at whose presence the kingdoms 
quailed, and beneath whose fury its own monarchy was 
swept away. And in Paris was again the first outburst 
of the thunder- cloud, which, rolling eastwards and south- 
wards, pealed over Germany, and crashed upon Eome — 
whose electric flash rekindled in the city of Popery the old 
anti-Papal fire, and struck terror to every Catholic soul. 
A bolt of vengeance again smote the tiara from the 
pontiff's brow ; and the political life-blood of the Papacy 
curdled in its veins. Distress again overtook the home of 
the Eoman Catholic Church. She was smitten in her 
pride : her temporal sovereignty was wrested from her 
grasp, and her ruler thrust out a wanderer and a fugitive. 
This created great consternation and pain in the Eoman 
Catholic world. But in order to a right comprehension of 
the events of the time, it will be advantageous to take a 
brief retrospect of intervening French politics, from the 
fall of Bonaparte to the Eevolution of '48. 

The fate of the First Empire was decided at 
Waterloo, and Napoleon was banished to St. Helena. 
Terms of peace being agreed to, a member of the 
Bourbon family was restored to the French throne. 
This individual was Louis XVIII., brother to the 
monarch who was destroyed at the outbreak of the 
Eevolution. The king known as Louis XVII. was 
the son of Louis XVI. — the poor youth who expired in a 
dungeon ; * and the next heir of the ancient reigning house 

* See page 37. 



51 



of France was the Count of Provence, brother to Louis 
XVI., who, in 1815, ascended the throne as Louis XVIII. 
He reigned nine years, and died peacefully in 1824. He 
was succeeded by his brother, the Count of Artois, as 
Charles X. But in 1830 there came a shuffling of the 
dynasty. 

France had been in an unsettled state for some time ; 
and the king set himself against the spread of those 
principles (the traditional principles of the Revolution) 
which were most commonly held. The last venture of 
autocracy was the issue of certain " ordonnances," as 
follows : — 

1. Decreed that no newspaper or periodical should be 
published without the permission of the king, such per- 
mission to be renewed every three months. 

2. Dissolved the Chamber of Deputies. 

3. Decreed that the new Chamber should consist only 
of Deputies from the Departments^ and not from the 
Arondissements. Thus the number was reduced from 430 
to 258. It also abolished the ballot, and limited the 
electoral franchise to the possession of property. The 
prefects were reinvested with absolute power (it had been 
withdrawn in 1828) over the preparation of the electoral 
lists — i.e., " list of voters." 

4. Appointed the 28th July for the meeting of the new 
chamber. 

5 and 6. Nominated to the dignity of Councillor of 
State certain persons known to be devoted adherents of 
ultra -royalist principles, all of whom were very unpopular 
among the people. 

This caused the "Revolt of the Barricades."* The 
chamber never met. Charles X. fled ; and Louis Philippe 
became King of France. 

* An insurrection of the citizens of Paris, who barricaded the main 
thoroughfares of the city. 



52 



Orleanist is now a word of popular repute, and a few 
words in explanation may "be acceptable. Louis Philippe 
was the first Orleanist King of the French, and the term 
has been applied to his family from the fact that he was 
Duke of Orleans. It is a branch of the ancient house of 
Bourbon, and originated in Philippe, a younger son of 
Louis XIII. He was created Duke of Orleans by his 
brother, Louis XIV. The second wife of the first Duke 
of Orleans was Elizabeth Charlotte, grand- daughter of 
James I. of England. The Orleans lineage is the result 
of this marriage. 

Louis Philippe reigned prosperously about 18 years, 
and then he also came to the usual modern fate of French 
monarchs. It was for the safety of his person and the 
solace of his soul to fly precipitately from his palace and 
his people, and compose himself in the seclusion of exile. 
And so he exchanged the glitter of French sovereignty for 
the unostentatious life of a private English gentleman. 

A Eevolution commenced in France in February, 1848. 
There was another " Eevolt of the Barricades."* Louis 
Philippe might easily have put it down ; but he fled from 
the Tuileries to St. Cloud, and from St. Cloud to England, 
u unwilling to shed the blood of Frenchmen."f 

The Eevolution spread, and almost every nation on the 

* Many of our readers will remember the last attempt (and that a 
feeble one) at barricading in Paris. It was last year, under the Ollivier 
Ministry, and during the squall of Rochfortism. 

t Present reports from France speak of Legitimists and Orleanists. The 
Legitimists are those who are in favour of the direct line of kings — the 
House of Bourbon, which was subverted in 1830. The Orleanists are 
those who adhere to the family of Louis Philippe. The Legitimist heir 
to the throne of France is the Count de Chambord, son oi Charles X. 
The Orleanists will probably put forward either the Duke D'Aumale, son 
of Louis Philippe, or the Count de Paris, grandson of Louis Philippe, 
and son of the Duke of Orleans— now dead. As the Count de Chambord 
has no children, the Legitimist claim will, on his death, fall to the 
House of Orleans, and the heir and hope of both the elder and younger 
branches of the House of Bourbon will be the Count of Paris. (Feb. 23) • 



53 

Continent was affected by it. Blood was shed in the 
streets both of Vienna and Berlin. A German Parliament 
was convened, elected by universal suffrage, and composed 
of delegates from Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and 
all the lesser German states. The objects of this Parlia- 
ment were, to unite all Germany into one Confederation, 
to relieve the different states from the oppressions and 
exactions of their rulers, and to establish free institutions 
throughout Germany. The Imperial crown was offered 
by this Parliament to Frederick William, late King of 
Prussia, and brother of the present King. It was declined, 
and the efforts of the Parliament were altogether abortive. 
The idea of a great and united Germany was a grand one; 
but the time had not come. In 1871, however, we see it 
realized. The crown that was refused by Frederick 
William IV. is accepted by William I., and the new 
Kaiser of a united Germany assumes his diadem in the 
halls of Louis XIV, and Louis XV. at Versailles. 

" In Italy, too, liberal principles made gigantic strides." 
There were convulsions in Sardinia and Florence, in Naples 
and Milan. On March 23, 1849, Charles Albert, King of 
Sardinia, abdicated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel, 
who now, as King of Italy, continues to reign. 

The Pope was not beyond the range of the influence of 
the new ideas. He was compelled to concede a constitu- 
tional government to the long oppressed and priest-ridden 
people of the Papal States. The press was made free ; 
laymen were admitted to a participation in civil affairs ; 
an independent Court of Justice was instituted, where 
judges should administer the laws without; respect to the 
opinions of Cardinals or Priests ; a Chamber of Deputies 
was appointed to be elected ; and free schools for the poor 
were established in every district in Eome. 



54: 

But the end was not yet. Th8 battle in Italy was still to 
be fought. Eome became divided against itself — a piti- 
able anarchy. Two great parties were contending for the 
mastery. On the one side, the Pope and his adherents ; 
on the other side, the legislative assemblies of the people. 
The irritation became more and more violent. The Pope 
had granted much ; the people demanded more. The Pope 
became, at length, virtually a prisoner in his own palace ; 
the cardinals dared not appear in the streets ; many of 
the priests were ill-treated and even beaten ; and the 
people openly declared that Pius IX. would be the last of 
the Popes. At length the crisis came. The Pope fled 
from Eome to Grseta.* Mazzini was installed as Dictator 
at the Capitol; and the Eoman Eepublic was formally 
proclaimed. 

But the French Eepublic crushed the Eoman Eepublic. 
The Eepublic of France brought the Pope back again to 
Eome; and from that time to the year 1870 the Papal 
chair has been upheld by French bayonets. 

It is about this period that we believe must be placed 
the termination of the fifth vial. The events which, in 
Italy, followed the Eevolutions of 1789 and 1848 were 
similar in that, in each instance, the disturbances in Eome 
were caused by the commotions in Paris. And in each 
instance there was an irresistible antipathy of the popula- 
tion to the Pope, which was followed by his ejection 
from their borders. The latter event was a repetition, as 
it were, of the former. There was the same kind of trouble,; 
and the infliction was administered in the same way. 
There was turmoil and perplexity in the home of the Papal 
Sovereign ; and he h imself was hounded from his country. 

of*Naples. Dgly fortified town on tlie weat coa st of the former kingdom 



55 



There is dissimilarity in that in the former instance he 
was banished with the assistance of French troops, and in 
the latter by Eoman citizens only ; but that only makes 
his second overthrow the more significant, and his final 
dissolution the more certain. The event of '48 was the 
warning note before the close of day. The clock of 
prophecy was about to strike the knell of his last hour. 
And at each period the kingdom of the Papal Euler has 
become " full of darkness." These judgments at Rome 
have caused the greatest consternation and grief in the 
Roman Catholic Church, and especially to the official part 
of that Church. They stood aghast at the sight, their 
hearts wrung with anguish, and, as the figure puts it, 
" gnawed their tongues for pain." 

The fifth vial is the harbinger of the seventh. It does 
not destroy the Papacy, but weakens it. It is followed by 
partial recovery. It is 'preliminary to the final overthrow 
of the Papal system. It is the stunning blow before the 
death-stroke. For a while it regains strength, and enjoys 
apparent prosperity. But the last judgment is not long 
delayed. 

The rallying of the Papacy after the catastrophe of 1848 
is very different to that which followed the visitation of 
1798. Then, for about fifty years, it was enabled to main- 
tain the dignity and independence of its position. But the 
blow of '48, administered in the same way as that which pre- 
ceded it, knocked it into the decrepitude of extreme old age 
— rendered it still more weak and incapable — threw it on its 
last legs. It is true the Papal power was again restored. 
The Pope was re-seated on his immaculate throne, and re- 
habilitated in the vest of his temporal possessions. But 
not as heretofore. The fifth vial made a terrible impres- 
sion. The beast was wounded and laid prostrate. He 



56 



needed careful nursing, vigilant attention, and a strong 
staff on which to lean. These perquisites could not be 
supplied from Italy. There was no more strength, no 
more medicine, no more life-blood for the Papacy in Eome. 
The Pope in Italy was left without support — the rock, the 
solid earth of the Papacy in Eome had been hewn away 
by the Ee volution— and the Pope " found no rest for the 
sole of his foot." But France interposed, and interposed 
not to overturn, but to prop up — not to destroy, but to 
save. The foreigner was the saviour of the Papacy. 
French troops came again, but to repress Eoman citizens 
instead of arousing them— to keep the Pope firm on his 
throne instead of driving him from it — to lead him from 
banishment to a regal splendour, instead of conducting 
him from the magnificence of royalty to an ignominious 
exile. On France he leaned ; by France, he, as an earthly 
Sovereign, lived. A French brigade was perpe- 
tually quartered in the Eternal City ; and with the aid of 
this staunch external pillar, the Pope was enabled to 
ensconce himself in the security and grandeur of former 
days, and to luxuriate in the territorial greatness which 
his predecessors had so long and so proudly enjoyed. 
He was still a king — had still a temporal empire — and was 
Supreme Head of the Church. But — his strength was not 
his ovm — he leaned on foreign help. And the time was 
approaching when this refuge should be shattered to 
pieces. For Sedan was on the wing. The last crash was 
near. 



57 

SIXTH VIAL. 

We read that the sixth angel poured out his vial " upon 
the great river Euphrates ; and the water thereof was 
dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be 
prepared." This vial appears to have in itself no connec- 
tion with the fifth and seventh, although as the result of 
it there comes a strain of circumstances which has an 
intimate bearing upon the vials preceding and following. 
It is poured out upon a locality wholly distinct from the 
other vials ; but it has a relationship to those vials in the 
combination between three unclean spirits for opposition 
to the triumph of truth, and for the final conflict of Arma- 
geddon. The other vials mainly relate to the beast, but 
this one to the false prophet ; and so far it is disconnected 
and independent ; but an unclean spirit proceeds from 
the mouth of the beast, and in alliance with it is a similar 
spirit from the false prophet, as well as one from the 
dragon ; and the grand confederacy thus formed is the 
sequence of the sixth vial, and probably denotes events 
contemporary with the seventh. But the vial now under 
consideration falls upon another territory, and affects a 
distinct phase of social development, and is only related 
to the other vials so far as it concerns the work of the 
unclean spirits. But although affecting a different region 
and people, it has the same design as all the other vials. 
The grand embodiments for the maintenance and propa- 
gation of evil in the world are varied in their nature. 
This vial affects one of them, and one of the principal. 
Next to Romanism, nothing has so much tended to obstruct 
the Gospel as Mahometanism. The other vials chiefly fall 
upon the towering structure of European apostasy. And 
they shiver and destroy it. But this vial is intended 
to break down and remove out of the way the long-con- 



58 



tinned and mighty "barrier of Mahometan delusion. The 
design in every case is to strike and blast the most gigantic 
impediments of evangelical religion, and lead the march 
of universal rectitude and peace. 

The vial falls upon the " great river Euphrates." (v. 12). 
The Euphrates being the principal river of Western Asia, 
we believe we must take this figure to represent the Em- 
pire of Turkey. And this Empire has been the foremost 
champion and the mightiest bulwark of the religion of 
Mahomet. It was in Western Asia that Mahometanism 
arose ; and for many, many centuries the religion of the 
Turk has been firmly established throughout the whole 
western part of the Asiatic continent — in Asia Minor, in 
Palestine, in Arabia, in Persia, and much of Hindoostan. 
And this religion was essentially overbearing and 
bigoted. It was taught with the assistance of fire 
and sword, and no differing doctrines could be tolerated. 
Christianity was placed under an unrelenting ban. 

In 1453 (when Henry VI. reigned in England, and at 
the time of the Wars of the Eoses) Mohammed II. con- 
quered Constantinople, and established the Turkish Empire 
in Europe. And for more than four hundred years the 
Sultan has reigned over a considerable portion of this 
continent. At one period (1683) even Central Europe 
was threatened with the Mahometan sceptre, and Vienna 
narrowly escaped capture. 

Thus Turkey has occupied a most favourable position 
on the two continents ; some of the finest provinces of the 
world have fallen to its share ; and its whole influence has 
been employed to prevent the dissemination of Chris- 
tianity. " By its laws, it was death to a Mussulman to 
apostatize from his faith, and become a Christian; and 
examples, not a few, have occurred in recent times to 



59 



illustrate it." * It has only been since the year 1849 that 
Protestantism has been tolerated in the Turkish dominions. 

The vial being poured upon the Euphrates, 4 'the water 
thereof was dried up." Under the symbol of the drying 
up of the river, we are probably to understand a gradual 
decline, or wasting away of the Turkish power. And now 
comes the question as to the period when the waters of 
this river began to diminish — when the magnitude of the 
Mussulman began to abate, and his beautiful crescent to 
wane. We have already noticed the disconnectedness of 
this vial from the preceding and following, that is, as to 
the locality on which it falls, and the system which it 
smites. And from its separateness we gather the need- 
lessness of its occupying an exact position between them. 
This vial might, and very probably did commence long 
before the cessation of the fifth, and may extend far into 
the duration of the seventh. 

Several circumstances have contributed to the decline 
of the Turkish power. In the year 1820, there was in- 
ternal revolt and insurrection. Ali Pasha asserted his 
independence, and the quelling of disorder weakened the 
force of the empire. And soon there happened a formid- 
able insurrection in Greece. A Turkish army of 30,000 
men was sent (in 1823) to repress the revolt, and bring 
back the rebels to allegiance. This army was destroyed 
by the Greeks, and at sea they vanquished the superior 
Turkish and Egyptian fleets. But there was a turn in the 
tide of success, and Ibrahim Pasha almost succeeded in 
subjugating the peninsula. Then the sympathies of West- 
ern Europe were awakened in behalf of the struggling 
Christians, and the united fleets of England, France, and 
Eussia, attacked and destroyed the Turco-Egyptian fleets 



• Er, Barnes, 



60 



in the battle of Navarino (1827) and thus secured the 
independence of Greece. This was a very heavy blow at 
the Ottoman power. 

And next came the rebellion of the great Egyptian 
Pasha, Mehemet Ali. He attacked and conquered Syria, 
and was fast advancing on Constantinople. But the 
European powers now interfered in behalf of the Sultan. 
By England, Eussia, Prussia, and Austria, Mehemet was 
compelled to retire into his own Pashalic territory, and 
since that time Egypt has been practically independent. 
She is merely nominally subordinate to Turkey, and we 
observe there is now some difficulty in sustaining amicable 
relations between the governor of Egypt (known as the 
Khedive) and his professed superior, or suzerain — the sultan 
of Constantinople. This movement in Egypt has also 
greatly assisted in subduing the potency of the once 
terrible Turk. 

We are informed that depopulation is a striking feature 
of Turkish society. A traveller* states that during 
twenty years, Constantinople has lost more than half 
its inhabitants. Within this period, from three to four 
hundred thousand persons were swept away by causes 
which were not operating in any other city of Europe — 
conflagration, famine, and civil commotion. The births 
among the Turks do little more than exceed the ordinary 
deaths, and cannot supply the waste of casualties. He 
says, " We see the human race threatened with extinction 
in a soil and climate capable of supporting the most 
abundant population." 

Thus the river Euphrates is drying up : the mighty 
torrent of Turkish arrogance has been stayed — the strength 
of Turkey is gradually and surely decreasing — the Empire 



* Mr. Walsh. 



61 



is being frittered away — Mahometanism is coming to 
nought. Vice predominates — the population lessens — 
provinces assert their independence — and neighbouring 
nations sit perched with eagle eyes, ready to make her last 
carcase a prey. Turkey may well be styled a " sick man." 
It is unable of itself to support its independence. And 
we believe all efforts will be unavailing to arrest the 
progress of decline. Eussia darted upon her victim in 
1854, and France and England scared her off. But the 
tottering power is again in jeopardy. And so it will 
continue. The river must be " dried up." Mahometanism 
is doomed. The Turkish power (as Mahometan) must fail 
— must utterly fail. Whether this event shall be produced 
by the total disruption of the Ottoman empire, or by the 
conversion of the the Turkish Government to Christianity, 
is matter for conjecture. But it would seem probable that 
the secular power would share the fate of the delusion of 
which it has been the protection, the propagation, and the 
life. 

One great design of the pouring out of this vial is the 
preparation of " the way of the Kings of the East." The 
dissolution of the Turkish Empire, or its conversion 
to the Christian faith, will produce a profound 
impression upon Central and Eastern Asia. Eastward 
from Turkey are more than one half the population 
of the globe. And almost the whole of this mass 
of human beings are the cringing devotees of Pagan- 
ism and Mahometanism. Turkey holds the key of this 
continent, standing at the gates of Christianity and 
civilization as the very bulwark of error. The eyes of 
the East are on the West. Turkey has been known to 
Asia for centuries as the unwavering opponent of Jesus 
Christ, and the determined and successful champion of 



62 



Mahomet. Turkey is held in reverence, and regarded 
as a leader. The effect of the conversion of the 
Mussulman to Christianity, or the disruption of his 
Empire will, in either case, be the same. Every- 
where the Orescent will give place to the Cross. 
The Holy Land will rejoice in its own Saviour, and 
in Arabia itself Mahomet will bow to Jesus. Then a 
mighty obstacle to the spread of truth will disappear, 
Mahomet will be looked upon with contempt, and Pagan 
gods will scarcely be considered stronger, more able to 
resist the approach of evangelism, or more worthy of 
resisting it, than he. Then the Kings of the East will 
repudiate the impostor whose own empire is crushed, and 
whose religion is vanquished from its native and most 
genial soil, and consigning idolatry and imposition alike 
to desolation, will hasten to the glorious light which after a 
thousand years of eclipse has now so auspiciously arisen 
upon that redeemed but long-lost clime. The great barrier 
being removed, all Asia will have a safe and easy passage 
to the civilization, the Protestantism, and the life of the 
West-ward world. 

The next four verses are involved in an obscurity from 
which we can hardly attempt a rescue. They certainly 
are indicative of events which will be of the very first 
importance in the era of their occurrence, and in presence 
of which all other transactions will dwindle into in- 
significance. And on such a difficult subject, we should 
be sorry to venture any decided explanation. Conjectures 
may be hazarded, but it must still remain wrapped up in 
mystery. We believe the nature and office of the unclean 
spirits, and the great battle to which they incite, are points 
which can only be understood in the light of succeeding 
time. And yet it may not be long until these tremendous 



63 



facts are fully unfolded by the lamp of history, and found 
to have their clear prediction and portraiture in this 
inspired symbol. 

Some imagine these verses to have a literal signification, 
and others a spiritual one. Whether they be real or 
figurative, they no doubt fore-token a grand contest between 
truth and error, the result of which shall be the complete 
and undoubted triumph of God and right. Then evil 
shall, as it regards its incubus upon humanity, be baffled 
as it has never before been baffled, and good shall triumph 
as it never triumphed before. The miseries of the fall 
shall rapidly disappear, and the blessings of redemption 
quickly and universally prevail. 

It has been thought by some that the unclean spirits 
are opinions, or influences, proceeding from the three 
leading systems of error — Paganism, Mahometanism, and 
Popery.* Dr. Barnes considers it unnecessary that there 
should be a real and deadly conflict of opposing armies, 
but thinks there may be influences at work in Eomanism, 
in Mahometanism, and in Heathenism, which resemble a 
combination of actual military forces. There will be in 
Heathenism, Eomanism, and Mahometanism one object — 
to bar the spread of evangelical religion, and even to seek 
its repression. And it is possible that either from unfor- 
seen coincidence, or by mutual agreement, the opposition 
may in all parts partake of the same characteristics. It 
may be as if there were a universal gathering of forces in 
one great battle-field. But the weapons of truth will 
everywhere defeat the arms of ungodliness. 

* A friend has suggested whether Socialism may not be the unclean 
spirit proceeding from the dragon. During the present war there 
certainLy has been a great conjunction of Socialistic and Romish forces 
in France, and in England has appeared a remarkable disposition on the 
part of Papists and semi-Papists, and Sceptics and semi-SGeptics, to 
enlist us on the French side. 



64: 



Or there may be a literal conflict. Hostile armies may 
really meet on the field of battle. The unclean spirits 
may marshal their forces for a great and final onslaught 
upon the foe. Armies may be rallied in behalf of Koman- 
ism, in behalf of Paganism,* and in behalf of Mahometan- 
ism to attack and subdue nations which have a simpler 
and purer faith. The armies may be vast, the contest 
furious, the carnage terrible — the slopes of Armageddon 
be strewed with the mangled and the dying, and its streams 
red with blood. .But the issue of the conflict is certain. 
The unclean spirits may have gratified their malice in war 
and destruction; but they will have mis-calculated. 
Victory, leaving their standards, flies to sit and sing upon 
the escutcheon they hoped to trample in the dust. Their 
mighty hosts are captured, slain, and scattered in every 
part of the great battle-field ; and with their discomfiture 
perishes the last hope of the dragon, and the beast, and 
the false prophet. Armageddon is provoked by Satan ; 
but overruled by God, it becomes the crowning stroke of 
the Saviour's victory. The spirits retreat undone to their 
own hell — idolatry falls, apostacy dies, delusion vanishes, 
infidelity hides its blaspheming head — Jesus attracts the 
gaze of an uprising world, and it 

" Brings forth the royal diadem, 
And crowns him Lord of all." 



* Or Socialism. We may note that the stronghold of Paganism 
appears to be in China and Japan, and of Socialism in Western Europe. 



65 



SEVENTH VIAL. 

" The seventli angel poured out his vial into the air, and 
there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, 
from the throne, saying, It is done." Then it is said 
there were " voices, and thunders, and lightnings," and a 
" great earthquake." And in a succeeding verse we read 
that " every island fled away, and the mountains could not 
be found." "And there fell upon men a great hail," and 
" the plague thereof was exceeding great." (Eev. xvi. 17-21.) 
Now we do not think all this is to have a literal interpre- 
tation. We scarcely think there would be upon the earth 
audible " voices " from heaven ; neither might there be 
the actual " thunder, lightning, and earthquake," although 
it is quite possible. There have been fierce thunder-storms 
and appalling earthquakes, and symptoms have not been 
wanting of more of these alarming concussions. There 
may be to some extent a literal fulfilment ; but we believe 
the manifestations to be chiefly intended as imagery, to 
impress the mind with solemnity and awe, to denote the 
imposing pre-eminence of the events which were about to 
transpire, and the severity of the judgments which would 
in these events fall upon the earth. And as this vial 
would come with especial fury, it is introduced by a re- 
presentation of the most violent ebullitions of nature. 
" Thunder," " lighting," an " earthquake," a " great hail," 
— these are among the most furious and startling pheno- 
mena that our world can exhibit. There is nothing more 
sudden, more startling, more solemn, more appalling, and 
destructive. Nothing could better depict violent, sudden, 
and overwhelming calamities, such as would excite mankind 
with tremour and dread, than thunderings, lightnings, an 
unparallelled earthquake, and great hail, of which the 
plague should be exceeding great. There can be no doubt, 



66 



we believe, that these natural manifestations have a high 
symbolic meaning. The agitation of the natural elements 
betokens agitation in the world of politics. Explosions 
and revolutions in nature prefigure revolutions in human 
society, and the explosion of thrones and kingdoms. And 
there will be moral and religious revolutions — the explosion 
of false theories and sham religions — the breaking down and 
destroying of everything superstitious or philosophical that 
is opposed to the simple Word of God and the testimony of 
Jesus. " Every island fled away, and the mountains were 
not found." The changes will be of stupendous propor- 
tions, and thorough in their character. There will be great 
international changes. Mighty nations will become weak, 
and striking national characteristics will disappear. There 
will be marked transformations in the world of fashion, and 
in the world of commerce. There will be complete changes 
in the ecclesiastical world. All an ti- Christian Churches 
and systems of religion will " flee away," and " will not be 
found." And in the world of morals will be changes as mar- 
vellous as any. The convulsions of justice will dissipate 
the pride and unbelief which make men materialists and 
ceremonialists, and the selfishness which makes them 
hypocrites ; and iniquity, in its multiplied phases, will sink 
in a flood of brotherhood and peace. 

Now in the statements we are about to volunteer we 
may be right, or we may be wrong. Our readers shall 
take our remarks for what they are worth. We may 
produce an argument or an illustration, but we will 
not say it is decisive. We can only conjecture, 
and deduce conclusions from conjectures. We shall 
shew, as we have done before, the probable explan- 
ation of the Scripture. We cannot certainly decide. 
But with the indications of prophecy we compare the 



67 



current of events, and shew what we believe to be the 
likely r , and very likely fulfilment of this transcendent part 
of the apocalyptic vision. 

It will be seen that we fix the Era in vjhich we live as the 
time of the outpouring of the last vial. In doing this, we 
believe we are not capricious. The sixth vial falls upon a 
separate territory, and affects a distinct class of society. It 
appears to commence during the fifth, and to run far into the 
seventh. The fifth vial on the seat of the beast appears 
pretty clearly to end about the year 1848, when the Papacy 
in Eome was laid prostrate, and obliged to depend on 
foreign help. And the seventh vial is little else than a 
continuation of the fifth. It affects the same region and 
people. It completes the work which the fifth vial has so 
effectively promoted. And it quickly follows upon the 
fifth vial. There is but a brief lull after the shivering 
blows of the fifth until the seventh bursts forth in a tempest 
of wrath, and then " It is done" Babylon falls, anti-Christ 
is slain, the enemies of God are scattered, perdition receives 
her prey, and a renovated world pays homage to its Saviour. 

We are inclined to consider this vial as commencing in 
1859, with the revolutions in Italy and the Franco- Austrian 
war. What may be the period of its duration it is scarcely 
possible to predict. At any rate, it seems to reach to the 
very verge of the Millennium. Mr. Fleming thought the 
sixth vial would not be fully exhausted till near the year 
2000. And the seventh, running parallel with it, would 
probably last to the same epoch. Our own opinion is, 
however, that it will not reach to so distant a date. But 
this is immaterial. The main facts of futurity are revealed 
unto us, but for a knowledge of the exact period of their 
realization, the generations must wait. 

We believe the seventh vial is to be chiefly characterized 



68 



by three principal circumstances. They are — the BATTLE 
OF AKMAGEDDON, the FALL OF BABYLON, and the 
OYEBTHEOW OF THE BEAST. The fall of Babylon 
seems to take place towards the commencement of the 
vial. Armageddon would appear to be fought at intervals, 
and not concluded till towards the end of the period. 
The beast is overthrown when the vial terminates. And 
then is the morning of the millennium. 

The events connected with the outpouring of this vial 
embrace the whole of the 17th, 18th, and 19th chapters of 
Bevelation. We believe a part of what is here represented 
to be simply symbolic, some to be highly figurative, and 
much to be only capable of a literal application. 

Several emblems are employed. There are — the woman, 
the beast, the great city, and other less important allusions. 
The woman is otherwise styled the great whore ; and again, 
the great city, and upon her forehead is said to be a name 
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, &c. (Chap. xvii. 
verses 1, 4, 5, 18). The " woman" and "the great city " 
are evidently figures of one and the same thing. But the 
" beast " is different. It is not the same as the great city ; 
for the woman " sat upon the beast " (verse 3) and the 
" beast carried her," (verse 7). It also survives the 
woman — remains and is active after Babylon has fallen, 
for St. John says, " I saw the beast and the kings of the 
earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war 
against him that sat on the horse, and against his army." 
(Chap, xix., verse 19). And then follows his overthrow. 
The beast and Babylon, therefore, are not identical. They 
are distinct figures, and require a separate explanation. 
The battle of Armageddon probably, has a reference to 
both ; but Babylon falls near the commencement of the vial, 
and the beast is overthrown at its close. The beast has 



69 



" ten horns," which are explained to be 11 ten kings." 
(Chap. xvii. 12). These ten kings "give their power and 
strength to the beast," (verse 18) ; yet they " hate the 
whore, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her 
flesh, and burn her with fire," (verse 16). But they 
" agree and give their kingdom to the beast, until the 
words of God be fulfilled" — (verse 17). The beast, then, 
escapes the destruction which befalls the woman, and 
endures for a season. 

Our opinion is that the " scarlet coloured beast, full of 
names of blasphemy," is the Eoman Catholic Church, and 
more especially in its spiritual character. It has, how- 
ever, strong political connections, and may be the 
recognized and established religion of many nations. Then 
what is the "woman," the "great city?" Well, we 
should be sorry to assert with positiveness, but we have to 
suggest that the figures may not be indicative of any one 
city, or nation, or power, and wish to venture the idea 
whether we may not have in Paris, in France, and in the 
Temporal Power of the Pope, what is so strikingly repre- 
sented by " the great whore," and the " great city 
Babylon." The Papacy has been of an essentially temporal, 
as well as spiritual character. The Pope has been an 
earthly Sovereign as well as Head of the Church. He has 
been king as well as pastor. He has had a temporal 
throne, territory, subjects, and been surrounded with all 
the gorgeousness of monarchy. No sovereign has ever been 
more truly a King than he. And not only so ; but he has 
ascended above the various other kings and kingdoms of 
the world. He has reigned as " king of kings, and 
lord of lords." Sovereigns and nations have been under 
his heel. The politics of the nations took their com- 
plexion from Eome ; by the authority of the Pope war was 

F 



70 



proclaimed, and under his dictation were settled the terms 
of peace. The Papacy interfered in the civil and domestic 
affairs of kingdoms, had a hand in the enactment of laws, 
and presided at the administration of justice. The Pope 
set up and pulled down kings. He claimed and obtained 
for his Church immunity from the civil penalties of king- 
doms ; and claimed and obtained liberty to proscribe and 
punish at his pleasure. All this has been involved in the 
Pope's Temporal Power. And from this Temporal Power 
has flowed the persecutions which he has raised in all 
countries and for so many centuries. He has had author- 
ity in the nations to arrest, arraign at the bar of justice, 
condemn ; and fine, imprison, and put to death, even death 
at the stake, all those who dissented from his religion, and 
would not submit their consciences to his government. 
And this power he has fiercely exercised, as the history of 
all Catholic nations testifies. It has been exercised more 
or less right down to the present age. Since the destruction 
of the Inquisition, murders have been pretty well given 
up. But Concordats have still yoked the kingdoms to 
Rome. At the Eeformation several nations emanci- 
pated themselves ; but many still remained in abject 
bondage. And up to the year 1859, the States of 
Italy, Spain, and Austria, were rooted to the Temporal 
Power of the Papacy. There was in these nations no 
toleration for the Bible or Protestants. Fines, civil dis- 
abilities, banishment, confinement in dungeons — these were 
the ordinary lot of those who questioned the authority of 
the Pope and the infallibility of his Church. And all 
political and religious freedom was jealously excluded 
from his own especial dominions. This Power we believe 
to be symbolised in the " great whore," and in the 
" great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." 
(Chap. xtu. ver. 18). 



71 



But this earthly sovereignty has not been able to subsist 
without the support of France. France, although often 
erratic and manifesting signs of independence, has on the 
whole stuck firmly to the Papacy and to its temporal 
authority. The French monarch has been the " eldest son 
of the Church." And since 1848, especially, the Pope 
could not retain his sceptre without French assistance. 
France upheld the Pope. Paris supported Eome. Evi- 
dently, then, if the Temporal Power of the Pope was to 
cease, France must be stricken down. If Eome was to 
fall, Paris must fall. French supremacy and Papal 
supremacy must sink together. 

France is guilty. She has been the shield of the Papacy, 
and has for many centuries thrown her great influence into 
the scale of oppression and debauchery. The remarks in 
these chapters as to the abominations and persecuting 
spirit of the city apply equally to France and Eome. Paris 
appears as the forehead of the woman, on which is written 
Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and 
Abominations of the earth ; and we cannot keep ourselves 
from wondering whether we may not have in the Humilia- 
tion of Paris, the Prostration of France, and the Abolition 
of the Temporal Power of the Papacy, the desolation of the 
great whore — the Fall of Babylon. Or, at least, some 
part of that fall. 

The great war of 1870 then becomes a leading episode 
of the seventh vial ; and whether or not it has to do with 
the judgment on the great city, we believe that because of 
its bearing on infidelity, Popery, and profligacy, it must 
take a conspicuous place in apocalyptic history. 

"We proceed with our historical glimpses. 

Italy in '59. 

The French Eepublic sent an army to restore the tern- 



72 



poral sovereignty of the Pope, and to maintain him on his 
kingly throne. Surrounded by this army he was safe : 
his dignity and possessions were secured. For France 
was a great Power — the leading military nation of Europe. 
And so long as he could persuade the French Government 
to locate an army in his city, the Pope felt he was tran- 
quil and strong. 

And so far as could be judged from appearances, this 
support would continue. And for two reasons* First, 
because France was the most influential Power on the 
continent of Europe — a Power which, so far a3 could 
be gathered from experience, was not likely to be suc- 
cessfully resisted, or, at least, to be beaten, by any 
other continental Power. England might be able to 
check France. But the relationship between France and 
England had altered. An opposite line of tactics was 
being pursued from that which had formerly been so popular. 
Sworn, hereditary enemies had become friends. An entente 
cordiale had been established. Those who formerly slew 
each other now fought side by side ; and the Western 
Powers were firm allies. And, secondly, the new Govern- 
ment in France could not be upheld without the extreme 
Catholic, or Ultramontane party. This party held, as a 
vital principle, the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope. And 
that it might be secured, they demanded the presence of a 
French garrison in Rome. And to obtain the necessary 
and hearty support of this party, the Government con- 
tinued the maintenance of a strong force in the renowned 
Italian capital. The holding of such a glorious city as 
Eome was also flattering to Parisian vanity. And, there- 
fore, so far as could be judged from appearances, the 
French occupation of Eome would continue for a long 
period. 



73 



Napoleon the Third* was now the Sovereign of 
France. 

He was first installed as President of the Republic, and 
in December, 1852, seized the reins of empire. An appeal 
to universal suffrage gave him an almost unanimous yote, 
and confirmed him on the throne. 11 By the will of the 
French people," he became their Emperor. Buonapartism 
had a wondrous charm for France. They contrasted the 
glories of the first Empire with the flat and stale politics 
of Orleanist and Bourbon princes, and with one acclaim 
rallied round their new Napoleon, Emperor of the French* 
They anticipated more sprightliness in their national ad- 
ministration — more splendour at Court — more life in 
France — more vigour and dash in their foreign policy. 
So the vives-f for the Emperor were long and unanimous. 

Napoleon was astute. He was cautious as well as en- 
terprising. He was a genius, as was the first Napoleon. 
But his genius was developed in the cabinet rather than 
on the field of battle. He was not a soldier, and ought 
never to have taken the command of large armies. But 
he was a clever statesman. He understood France. So 
he managed to build his empire on universal suffrage, 
and to rule in accordance with democratic ideas. He 
founded his empire on the principles of the Eevolution. 
This pleased the masses. And he sent an army to defend 
the Pope in Rome. And this pleased the Church. He 
feared the enmity of England. He knew how ruinous 
her hostility had been to the first empire. And having 
lived in England, he knew how to estimate English prin- 

* Son of Louis Buonaparte, brother of the First Napoleon. The Second 
Napoleon, son of Napoleon I., died in 1831. 

t The English plaudit is Hurrah ! and often comes out with a loud 
Hoo-ray. The French is vive. Vive V Empereur—Long live the Emperor. 
Yive la Republique — Long live the Republic. 



74. 



ciples. So he set himself to secure her warm friendship. 
He obtained her alliance, and endeavoured to conduct his 
general foreign policy in unison with English sentiment. 
And knowing how costly and destructive an engine was 
war, he was careful, except compelled by an extremity, to 
avoid a too pretentious and overbearing meddling with 
great nations. Yet his diplomatic representations (usually 
in concert with allies) were lively and vigorous. And his 
throne appeared centred in stability. 

Securely entrenched behind a rampart of bayonets, en- 
circled with the attributes of royalty, re-possessed of the 
dominion and dignity of his predecessors, the Pope grew 
more vain of his great position, and more pompous in his 
assumptions. The Church of Eome had been reckless 
enough in ages gone by, but was never more daring than 
now. She had promulgated many mischievous doctrines, 
but never any so thoroughly absurd and blasphemous as 
during the interval of French intervention. She had been 
smitten, but was loathe to die, and took opportunities to 
convince the world of her pristine authority and might. 
In the year 1854 she concocted the dogma of the Immacu- 
late Conception of the Virgin Mary, and in 1870, at the 
great (Ecumenical Council, she declared the Personal 
Infallibility of the Pope. More iniquitous enactments 
than these could scarcely be devised. Eome imagined 
that she had risen to a zenith of authority and greatness. 
But she had descended to the lowest depths of falsehood 
and blasphemy. She appeared great, grand, imposing, 
universal. But it was the last outblaze before an ever- 
lasting night. She sat " arrayed in purple and scarlet 
colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and 
pearls," but the day was close at hand when the nations 
should " hate her, and make her desolate, and naked, and 



75 



eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." It was the flaunt- 
ing harlot's last hour, and she never came forth more 
audacious and vile. 

In 1798 and 1848, the Pope had been stripped and ban- 
ished. But the fall was of short duration : the loss was 
temporary. All his possessions were, by some means, 
speedily restored. But in the era to which we now 
refer, (1859) his treatment assumed quite a different 
aspect. A revolution commenced in Italy, and extended 
to nearly all the States of which that country was then 
composed. It reached to the territory of the Church, and 
the major part of the Pope's dominion was, not fitfully and 
temporarily, but permanently removed from his authority. 
A rent was made which was not to be healed, but which 
should be lasting, and increase till all he had was severed 
from his grasp. And this, as the first step in the perman- 
ent loss of temporal power, we consider the probable 
commencement of the seventh vial. 

The disruption of the Papal dominion in 1859 resulted 
from the movement in favour of Italian unity ; and the 
foremost actor was Garibaldi. He drove Bomba out of 
Naples, and having overrun the " two Sicilies," prepared 
to strike out still further in advancement of Italian 
emancipation. Victor Emmanuel determined to act with the 
revolution, and the whole land hastened to his leadership. 
He marched his army southwards. Modena and Florence 
fell into his hands, and the Piedmontese army entered 
the Papal States. Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed King 
of Italy, and Florence, instead of Turin, became his 
capital. 

Napoleon also found it convenient to join in the move- 
ment. Austria was firmly established in Northern Italy, 
and exerted her whole influence in behalf of the sovereignty 



76 

of the Pope. Italy could not be one whilst Austria clutched 
so large a share. Victor Emmanuel could not venture to 
grapple with Austria single-handed. And here was a 
splendid opportunity for France to maintain her prowess r 
and Napoleon to bring laurels to his crown and lustre to 
his empire. He could not but sympathize with his Italian 
brother, founding his kingdom on revolution, and building 
his throne on the universal consent of the people. The 
ferment also extended to France ; and the liberal part of 
the population were for assistance in what was called 
the great work of Italian regeneration. Napoleon re- 
solved on war. He entered Italy, and gave battle to the 
Austrian armies. Victory attended his legions. His 
generals (Mac Mahon and others) won the great battles of 
Magenta and Solferino ; and, in conjunction with the 
Italian troops, the French army drove the Austrians out 
of Lombardy. And this province was united to the 
Italian Kingdom. This success confirmed the popularity 
of Napoleon, and added strength to his dynasty. 

The Emperor was in a curious position. He both ad- 
vanced and opposed Italian unity. He fought to secure it, 
and employed an army to prevent it. He fought against 
Austria to secure it, and kept an army in Eome to prevent 
it. This he was necessitated to do by the circumstances 
of the case. He had to please the clergy, and to please 
the people. The people sympathized with Italian patriots, 
were jealous of Austria, and demanded the liberation of 
Italy. The clergy sympathized with the Pope, and de- 
manded an effective guardianship of his rights. And so 
the French drove out Austria, and still defended the Pope 
against Italian unity and patriotism. 

But Napoleon made no objection to the severance of alarge 
part of the Papal territory. It consisted at that time of 1 7,2 1 8 



77 



square miles, with a population of 3,124,688 inhabitants. 
The Pope accordingly lost the greater part of his dominion, 
which was also joined to the Italian kingdom. 

Garibaldi, in the ardour of his enthusiasm, afterwards 
sought to attack Eome itself, but was repelled by the troops 
of Victor Emmanuel at Aspremonte. The hour was not yet 
come. The King waited patiently for the prize, and 
when the moment came, won it with ease. 



THE GREAT WAR 

OF 1870. 

A Berlin ! A Berlin ! A has la Prusse ! Mort aux 
Prussiens ! Vive la guerre ! * This was the universal 
cry of Paris in July of last year. France was 
jealous of Prussia. Paris envied Berlin, and panted 
for her humiliation. All France was Buonapartist and 
warlike. "Warlike, because she hated Prussia, and wished 
to shew in battle her superiority. And Buonapartist, be- 
the Emperor was also for war. 

Paris was enthusiastic — almost frenzied, — burning with 
a desire to bring vengeance on Prussia, and determined at 
all hazards that the effort should be made. The very 
republicans were now for war and the Emperor. Eoch- 
fort, just before so popular, was now extinguished : his 
seditious print, the Marseillaise, could find no purchasers. 
The Chamber of Deputies voted war with only one dis- 
sentient, f The army was mad for war. They promised 

* To Berlin ! Down with Prussia ! Death to the Prussians ! Long 
live the War ! 

t That dissentient was M. Thiers. And for his vote, he was requested 
by his constituency to resign his seat. Now he has been re- 
turned lor 17 constituencies, and is Chief of the Government. (March 1). 
He is, however, intensely anti-German. But he thought the time had 
not come. The Spectator says that " at the last moment he weakened 
the Imperial Executive by his bitter condemnation of the German war, 
the causes of which no other Frenchman had done so much to foster." 



78 

themselves a rollicking time in Prussia, and to revel in 
Berlin to their hearts' content. And the papers pro- 
claimed that the " soldiers of Jena were ready." * 

The popularity of Napoleon had never been greater. 
Wherever he appeared, shouts of Vive VEmpereur rent the 
air. Had he refused to make war, he would have lost his 
Crown. But we believe the undertaking had his warm 
approval. His influence had long been on the decline. 
[Revolutionary excitement was on the increase. Something 
was wanted to revive the waning glory of the Empire. 
Nothing would do it so effectively as victory in battle. 
And no victory would give so much pride to Paris as the 
defeat and humiliation of Prussia. Napoleon determined 
to try his fortune. If he succeeded, his dynasty was 
secure — the Empire would be rooted firmly in the hearts 
of Frenchmen. And if he failed, he knew he should fare 
no worse than if he refused to fight. He would lose his 
throne without war : he would lose it if beaten in war. 
His only chance was in victory ; and he resolved to stake 
everything on the venture. 

France fully expected to win. She had beaten Prussia 
single-handed before, and believed she could do so again. 
The Prussians might have their needle-gun ; but she had 
the chassepot, and the deadly Mitrailleuse ; and before 
French marshals, the ardour of French soldiers, the 
chassepot, and the mitrailleuse, she confidently believed 
Prussia must fall. Prussia was cautious and calculating, 
making the utmost possible preparations, and half expect- 
ing defeat. England and other nations had faith in the 
genius and impetuosity of the French. And many pic- 
tured to themselves with dread French battalions parading 

* The battle of Jena was fought by the first Napoleon in 1806. He 
completely defeated the Prussian army, and Prussia lay at his feet until 
the disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812. 



79 

in Berlin, the annexation by France of the Ehenish pro- 
vinces of Prussia, and even the conquest of Belgium. 
But the French were over-confident, and neglected proper 
precautions. The Prussians duly estimated the strength of 
the foe, were half diffident, and put their army in the utmost 
possible state of perfection. And the result has been that 
(except at Saarbruck) not a shot has been fired — not a 
man has fallen, on Prussian soil. The seat of war has 
been Fkance ; and all expectations have been marvel- 
lously bafiied.* 



"Ye sons of France, awake to glory : 

Hark ! hark ! what myriads bid you rise ! 
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary — 
. Behold their tears and hear their cries. 

Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding, 
With hireling hosts — a ruffian band — 
Affright and desolate the land, 

While peace and liberty lie bleeding ? 
To arms, to arms, ye brave ! 
The avenging sword unsheath, 
March on, march on, all hearts resolved 
On victory or death/' 

This is a stanza of the Marseillaise^ the notorious 
French revolutionary song. It was at first applied to 
foreign powers, and then to the monarchical government 
at home. During the whole of Napoleon's reign it had 
been seditious and illegal. It was used only by factious 
republicans in opposition to the Government, and Boche- 
fort named his paper the Marseillaise in honour of the 
song, and as the symbol of Eevolution. But at the out- 

* Several maps of the seat of war have been displayed in the news- 
papers. At first they showed the Rhine, and nearly the whole of 
Prussia. Then it was a portion of Prussia and the eastern provinces of 
France. And at last they find themselves compelled by the tide of 
victory to make all Northern France the battle-field, with Paris as a 
central figure, and drop Prussia altogether from the scene. 

t Composed by Rouget de Lisle in 1792. 



80 



break of this war, the Marseillaise was laid hold of 
to intensify the fire of patriotism. It was encouraged by 
the police, and sung in the theatres; and the seditious 
ballad became the National Anthem. 

It was inappropriate to the occasion, because untrue. 
Yet there were in it some strange snatches of pro- 
phecy, and notes of dismal foreboding to the Empire. 
For their land has been " affrighted and made desolate," 
and their " fields and cities " have " blazed." But it 
accomplished its end in heightening the enthusiasm of the 
nation. So while bands played, and battalions carolled its 
stirring lays, and all France on its feet took up the chorus, 
the army marched to the frontier, and the Emperor drove 
to Metz. 



A wild cry leaps like thunder roar, 
Like glitt'ring brand, or wave to shore, 
The Rhine ! the Rhine ! the German Rhine ! 
"Who'll keep it when its foes combine ? 
Dear Fatherland ! no fear be thine, 
Great hearts and true watch by the Rhine, 

Thro' countless thousands thrills that cry, 

And lightning fills each patriot eye, 

And German youth, devoutly brave, 

Protect the sacred frontier wave ! 

Dear Fatherland ! no fear be thine, 
Great hearts and true watch by the Rhine. 

So long as we have blood to run, 

So long as we can hold a gun, 

So long as we can wield a brand, 

No foe, Rhine ! shall tread thy strand. 
Dear Fatherland ! no fear be thine, 
Great hearts and true watch by the Rhine. 

Flows on thy wave, while spreads our vow, 
Lo ! proud in air our flag flies now, 



81 



M The Rhine I the Rhine ! the German Rhine ! 

We'll keep it tho' our foes combine !" 
Dear Fatherland ! no fear be thine, 
Great hearts and true watch by the Rhine. 

These were the accents on the German side. 

What an empire is that of song ! And not the least of 
its provinces is the position it occupies as the anthem of 
nations. 



There can be no doubt that it was a leading motive with 
France to secure the annexation of the Rhenish provinces 
of Prussia. It had long been her most cherished ambition 
so to extend her empire that the Rhine should be her 
boundary.* But how wofully has she been disappointed ! 
How uncertain is war ! Instead of gaining more of the 
Rhine, and making it her frontier, she has lost it altogether, 
and the Rhine is nowhere a river of humiliated and parti- 
tioned France. France expected to crush Germany, and 
take the Rhine ; but Germany has crushed France, annexed 
Alsace, and left no portion of the waters of the grand old 
river to touch the soil of the re-modelled country of her foe. 

The war had a minature and a forecast in the desultory 
practice of single combatants at the outbreak of hostilities. 
A Prussian outpost aimed at a Frenchman, so many yards 
off, and shot him dead. Another Frenchman sought to 
avenge his comrade, and fired at the Prussian. Missed. 
Prussian now levelled at him in turn, and put him also 
hors de combat. 

Then came war in all its dreadful reality. Great and 
bloody battles were fought in rapid succession. Never in 
the history of the world did armies fight with greater 
bravery. The French fought desperately in every encounter, 

* To which, in the abstract, there might not be any particular objection. 



82 



and their heroism deserved a better fate. But their enemy 
was too keen, too calculating, too well provided, too cool, 
too determined, and, generally, too numerous, to permit 
success to the valorous legions of France. The soldiers 
of Napoleon fought with the greatest ardour, fought as 
they had fought in former days, were often on the point of 
routing the adversary, but were always beaten. MacMahon 
had with him the elite of the French army— the vanguard 
in the proposed march to Berlin. But at Weissemburg 
and Woerth he suffered ignominious defeat, and returned 
in a pitiable plight to Chalons, thereto collect the shattered 
remains of a brave and mighty host. 

MacMahon was ruinously defeated at Weissemburg and 
Woerth. At the same time, Frossard was beaten at For- 
bach, and fell back on Metz. From that time to the 
arrangement of the armistice on the 4th February of this 
year (1871), France has (with one or two trifling excep- 
tions) lost every sortie and every battle ; and the career of 
Prussia has been one unbroken scene of victory. 

Bazaine took the command-in-chief. But he was 
ont-manoeuvred. The Prussians veered round to his line 
of retreat, and interposed between him and the capital. 
The result was four days of the most bloody warfare of the 
campaign, and included the horrible carnage of Oourcelles 
Vionville, and Gravelotte (Aug. 14th, 16th, 18th). Bazaine's 
communications were entirely cut off, and he shut up in 
Metz. But immediately before the fighting of these battles 
(Aug. 13) the Emperor left Metz with a small escort, and 
returned to MacMahon at Chalons. 

Mac Mahon was now the man of the hour. The eyes of 
the world were fixed upon Mac Mahon, and with bated 
breath it awaited the issue of the next great conflict. 

The Crown Priuce, in marching towards^ Paris, had 



83 



passed Nancy, Toul,and Bar-le-duc ; and MacMahon, having 
re-organized his army at the Camp of Chalons, and ob- 
tained large reinforcements, set off with the design of 
liberating Bazaine from Metz. He chose a circuitous 
route, and was within a day of accomplishing his task 
when he was overtaken by the army of the Crown Prince. 
And now came on that most furious conflict known as 
the Battle of Sedan. It lasted three days, terminating on 
the 2nd of September with the surrender of the Emperor, 
and the capitulation of the whole French army. The river 
Meuse was choked with corpses, and the many miles of 
battle-ground strewed with the slain and the dying. A 
more momentous battle was never fought. Since the reverses 
of Weissemburg and Forbach the power of Napoleon had 
been trembling in the balance, and Sedan sealed its fate. 
Two days after (4th September) there was a revolution in 
Paris — the Empress fled to England — a Eepublic was 
proclaimed — and the Buonapartist regime ended in France. 

Patriotic Englishmen can afford a few good words for 
the fallen Emperor. Since he ascended the throne, he 
had always shewn himself the firm friend of this country. 
His foreign policy had been conducted in concert with pur 
own. In the difficulties with Bussia, Napoleon espoused 
our ideas ; and his brave army fought side by side witlj 
ours in the great struggle of the Crimea. On two or three 
occasions (as in the case of the Orsini conspiracy) he, by 
his own efforts, calmed Paris, and prevented France from 
rushing into a war with England. His alliance with 
England was of the most cordial character. He uniformly 
strove to reciprocate our good-will. 

His general policy cannot be said to have been hostile to 
the peace of nations. He did not invade and subdue 



84 



nations, as his uncle did, neither did he indulge in an 
overbearing interference in their internal affairs. He went 
to war with Eussia certainly, but that was in connection 
with England, and for what has usually been considered a 
good object. He assisted Italy against Austria ; but not 
wishing to push matters to an extreme, he, after two or 
three engagements, concluded a peace advantageous to the 
Italian nation. His exertions were directed against the 
domination of Austria in a country where she had no 
right, and in furtherance of Italian liberty and unification, 
although perhaps he would have preferred in Northern 
Italy an independent Confederation of States. He inter- 
fered in the affairs of Mexico ; and, considering the inse- 
curity and terror which there prevailed, we think it was a 
justifiable interference. 

His reign has been illustrious for France. Her material 
resources have been developed, commerce promoted, the 
predilections of Frenchmen studied, and turned to the best 
advantage for their gratification and comfort. It may 
truly be said that France was never more prosperous at 
ho me, or more influential abroad than during the 20 years 
of the rule of Napoleon. 

His great fault was a time-serving ambition. He aimed 
at ruling France, and everything was made to coincide 
with the chief purpose. As long as he could maintain his 
power by a pacific policy, he would keep on friendly terms 
with neighbouring nations. But in an extremity, for the 
sake of his dynasty, he would not shrink from a contest 
with the most formidable of European kingdoms. That 
extremity came last year. And when France asked for 
battle, he did not hesitate, but plunged boldly into a contest 
with a great military nation known to be second only to 
France herself. And we do not suppose that personally 



85 



he cared an iota for the sovereignty and independence of 
the Pope. But to please the Church and sustain the 
Empire, he forwarded an army to protect his person and 
his possessions. And in his choice of a wife, he pandered 
both to the Catholic Church, and to French pride and 
magnificence. She was a devoted adherent of the Papacy, 
and well adapted to wield a sceptre in the empire of fashion. 

He certainly did not raise, and did not seek to raise, the 
moral status of the French nation. He took them as he 
found them, and proceeded to govern them, with all their 
sins about them. Knowing their sentiments and aspira- 
tions, it was his object to give them political importance 
and material prosperity in the pursuit of all their plea- 
sures, and at the same time to accomplish the aggrandize- 
ment of his own House. 



TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE. 

Long Live Italy! Her tyrauts are dethroned. The 
foreigner is expelled. The last obstructive remnant is 
scattered. Italy is one— Rome is her capital— and Victor 
Emmanuel her king ! 

The great work, partially accomplished in 1859, and 
accelerated in 1866, is now completed. The Temporal 
Dominion of the Papacy is no more. The whole of the 
territory of the Church has been transferred to the Italian 
kingdom. 

Ever memorable will be the battle of Sedan. The 
triumph of Prussia was then ensured — the Second Empire 
received its death-blow — and France was laid at the feet 
of the conqueror. And we believe it was on the last day 
of that terrible conflict that the army of Victor Emmanuel 
entered Rome, subdued the Pope, terminated his temporal 
G 



86 



sovereignty, and consummated the political emancipation of 
Italy. Napoleon and the Pope fell together. 

Prussia was an opponent so formidable that a triumphant 
encounter must involve the requisition of every available 
resource. In the emergency, the French army was sum- 
moned from Eome, and moved to the German frontier. 
Then Victor Emmanuel, seeing his opportunity, replaced the 
receding garrison by his own troops ; and a 'plebiscite* gave 
an almost unanimous vote in favour of Italian unity and 
a constitutional king. The Pope lost his throne; Italy 
was made one : and Eome now takes her appropriate posi- 
tion as the capital of the Italian nation.* 

The question may be asked, Would the French occupa- 
tion have ceased except by the exigency of war ? We 
think it probable. If we remember rightly, Napoleon 
gave notice at Eome, during the sittings of the (Ecumeni- 
cal Council, that French protection must cease with the 
enactment of the dogma of personal infallibility. And, 
probably, feeling the danger of such outrageous assump- 
tions, and wishing to shew all deference to the fraternal 
Government of Italy, the withdrawal might, without the 
war, have been effected. But it would depend much on 
the influence at Court of the Ultramontane party. 

We are struck with the utter indifference of Catholic 
Governments to the fate of the Papal Power. Spain, 
Portugal, Italy, France, Austria, and certain States of 
Germany still profess the Eoman Catholic faith ; but no 
where has a hand been raised to prevent the fatal collapse. 

* The vote of the entire population. 
*In the year 1857 it was our privilege to hear Father Gavazzi in the 
Athenaeum, at Sunderland. He said then with emphasis — We must 
have one Italy. We must have Victor Emmanuel poe oue King-. 
And we must have Rome foe oue Capital. But Bomba then ruled in 
Naples, the Grand Dukes in the Duchies, Austria in Lombardy and 
Venice, the Pope in the Ecclesiastical States; and there was not the 
least sign of any realization of his aspirations. 



87 

Either by a passive aud careless attitude, or by an 
active interference, every Catholic Government in Europe 
has agreed that the "whore should be hated, and made 
desolate and naked," and that she should be consumed. 

Popery has no longer power to oppress and persecute. 
In all Eoman Catholic countries there is full tolera- 
tion. In the most bigoted and priest-ridden countries of 
the past, there is now civil and religious liberty. And 
civil and religious liberty is death to the Papacy. There 
is now freedom all over Italy — freedom in Austria — free- 
dom in Spain. A man may become a Protestant and read 
his Bible where a few years ago it could only be done at 
the risk of his life, and with the sure penalty of the for- 
feiture of his possessions and banishment from his country, 
or incarceration in a dismal cell. What happy changes ! 

The separation of the Eoman Provinces from the Pope 
is likely to be permanent. And for the following reasons. 
— There has been in all these transactions a determination 
and a firmness, indicative of endurance. The work com- 
menced 11 years ago. But, despite all the efforts of the 
Eomish Church, not an inch of the lost territory has been 
restored. The change has already stood the test of time. 
And the whole of the Papal Dominion is now united to the 
Italian Kingdom. And it has not been done by revolu- 
tionary upstarts. A stable government has presided over 
all the operations — a government able to maintain order, 
and hold its own. And withal it is a patriotic, a popular 
government, the Government of Italy — the synonym of 
unity and liberty. This constitutes an attraction for 
Eomans which all the tactics and subtilty of the Papal 
Church can never successfully resist. — And there is no 
foreign power to upset this government and restore despot- 
ism. Austria will not do it. She is as free as Italy. 



88 



Spain will not do it. Her new King Amadeus is the son 
of the Italian King. And she would have been unable 
had she been unchanged. France cannot do it. She 
is too weak for the task ; and perhaps would not do it 
if she could. And England will not do it. Perhaps Mr. 
Gladstone would not, and if he would, he will not be 
allowed, for Protestants have the ascendant here. Will 
Germany ? According to present appearances it must be 
she if any. But we do not believe Germany would sym- 
pathize with such an undertaking ; and even Bismarck 
would scarcely be venturesome enough for so daring an 
enterprise. We believe the Eoman Church to be perman- 
ently relieved of her Sovereignty and Power. 

It is to be regretted that the Pope has not taken his 
proper position as a subject. He still possesses absolute 
sway over himself. He is responsible to no earthly power 
for his conduct. And until he is made amenable to all 
civil laws, there still remain the elements of retrogression. 

As to the future of the Eoman Catholic Church. The 
Church will certainly exist for awhile, and may perhaps 
enjoy prosperity. A revival of power is possible, although 
present circumstances render it unlikely. That, as an 
ecclesiastical organization, it will continue, is certain. 
But we believe it will remain as the Beast rather than as 
Babylon, It will be more especially in its spiritual and 
influential character that Eomanism will now subsist. 
Probably most churches, orthodox and heterodox, will 
survive to the very beginning of the Millennium; and, 
purified, the Eoman Catholic Church may have a place 
eyen in the millennial period. But its future is altogether 
different to its past. It may be the recognized church of 
many nations — may even be established by law ; but it is 
divested of innate strength. It cannot hurt its neighbours, 



89 



nor by compulsion propagate its own sentiments. Popish 
Kings may " give their power unto the beast," may unite 
in its defence, and even do battle in the interests of the 
Roman religion ; but such an effort will be transient and 
abortive. Those who have made or shall make war for the 
beast have been and shall be overcome by the Lamb. And 
towards the conclusion of this vial the beast himself shall 
be taken, and cast, with the prophet, " into a lake of fire." 
All the peculiar doctrines and practices of Eomanism — 
Rome in its blasphemy and its iniquity shall be destroyed 
for ever. And what shall become of its upholders' and 
abettors ? 

We just call attention to two verses in chapter xvii. — 
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, 
and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having 
a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness 
of her fornication, (ver. 4). " The image here is that of Papal 
Rome, represented as an abandoned woman in gorgeous 
attire, alluring by her arts the nations of the earth, and 
seducing them into all kinds of pollution and abomination. 
It is a most remarkable fact that the Papacy, as if design- 
ing to furnish a fulfilment of this prophecy, has chosen to 
represent itself almost precisely in this manner — as a 
female extending an alluring cup to passers by."* 

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the 
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Verse 6.) 

Rome has been most emphatically a filthy church, and 
a blood-thirsty church. Read all history. 



* Barnes. — The Papacy is so represented on her coins, 



90 



PAEIS. 

Paris was fully invested on the 19 th September, and 
was closely besieged four months and a half. Every army 
destined for its relief was routed. Every sortie from 
"within proved abortive. Starvation did its work ; and on 
January 23rd. 1871, Jules Favre arrived at Versailles 
with proposals for capitulation. An armistice for three 
weeks was arranged, and on Feb. 6 was signed the terms 
of the surrender. And by every newspaper was placarded 
The Fall of Paris. 

The whole of the forts surrounding the city were occu- 
pied by Germans. The garrison, nearly half a million of 
men, became prisoners of war. The enormous armaments 
and war material fell into the hands of the victors. And 
Paris was compelled to pay to Germany the sum of 
£8,000,000 sterling. 

Paris was conquered, humiliated ; and famine was at 
her gates. 

But the deepest humiliation of all has been the occu- 
pation of this proud city by German troops. It was the 
most dreadful stroke of the war. But in spite of the 
threats of Paris, and the hectoring of London, and any 
vision of massacre that might be presented, they were 
compelled to bear it.* What a reverse of fortune. France 
overpowered by Germany ! The Prussians in Paris ! 

We cannot escape the impression that in the description 
of the fall of the apocalyptic Babylon (Chap, xviii.). there 
are strong allusions to Paris. It is true, Paris is not 
utterly destroyed, as the prediction seemed to indicate a 
city would be. But she is shorn of her glory. Her pride 

t The dignified and conciliatory behaviour of the Prussians alone f *pre- 
vented a terrible collision. 



91 



and prowess have been taken from her. She feels herself 
abased and degraded. She is emphatically a fallen city. 
We propose coDsidering a few characteristics of past and 
present Paris, and making some apocalyptic strictures. 
Our references will be chiefly to the eighteenth chapter. 

A Luxurious Queen. — How much she hath glorified herself, 
and lived deliriously, so much torment and sorrow give her ; 
for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, 
and shall see no sorrow. (Chap, xviii. ver. 7). 

All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her 
fornication fyc. (Yerse 3.) 

Paris has long reigned in imperial splendour — the capital 
of fashion — the world's rendezvous for pomp and show. 
A city of hilarity and glee — always light-hearted and 
joyful. A very queen in attractiveness, and gaiety, and 
glitter, " glorifying herself, and living deliciously," mis- 
tress of etiquette, dictating the tastes and courtesies of 
all surrounding nations. Society, and especially wealthier 
society, was very much what Paris made it. 

No better comment can be given than in the attached 
verses. The unison of idea is the more remarkable as 
coming from opposite sources. 

All races and regions their worshippers gave, 
And none but was fain to be sometime her slave. 

So she revelled, and ruled, wiled, and wantoned, and won, 

Like to her seen in Patmos in purple attired, 
Deckt with gold and fair stones that shot light as the sun, 
In her hand a gold cup, for their lips that desired, 
Of all nlthiness full, and a name on her brow, 
That seemed fitting her then, but so seerneth not now. 

The city is besieged in the dead of winter, and famine 
gtalks on apace. And bombardment comes. 

And at last with the Famine and Frost has come Fire, 
O'er that head, erst so dainty, its baptism to pour, 



92 



Till her crown of proud towers topples down in the mire, 
And death -shrieks are shrill through the crash and 
the roar. 

Is't despair or defiance thus nerves her to stand, 
Though shiver' d hilt-high is the sword in her hand ? 

Bids her hold her bent brows still confronting the flame, 

Whose hot hungry tongue licks her beautiful hair, 
As if in its fire she would purge sin and shame, 

Draw streDgth from starvation, defence from despair, 
Till we ask in amazement and awe — can it be ? 
Is this Delilah, Queen of Earth's Wantons, we see. 

—From Punch, Jan. 28th, 1871. 

The foe is at thy gates, 
The world in horror waits 

Thy doom, imperial city ! 
No more enthroned a Queen, 
In glitter and in sheen, 

But gloom is thine, city ! 

Thou led'st the world away 
With scenes of folly gay, 

To live but for to-day, city ! 
Now, horror on thy face, 
Thou sittest in thy place, 

And life is more than play, city ! 

Thou has slept a careless sleep, 
Hast drunk of pleasure deep, 

Hast revelled in glee, O city ! 
The Queen of every clime, 
How gaily fled the time, 

When the nations came to thee, city ! 

— City Road Magazine, Jan. 1871. 

The italics are our own. — So far back as A.D. 1100, one 
exclaimed, " seducing and corrupting city ! " And her 
frivolity has intensified with the lapse of years. There 
has been no reform or repentance. A city so notoriously 
profligate that further comment is unnecessary. 



93 



A City of Unbelief. — M. Drevet, writing to the 
Eclaireur of St. Etienne, put forward a plan for erecting 
Paris into an independent State, arguing that 

" It is the best practicable solution for a situation which has 
become impossible. Free-thinking Paris and the Catholic 
provinces have come to a point at which all accord between them 
is illusory ; when the capital wants to go forward the depart- 
ments draw back, and complete stagnation is not far off. Let 
the provinces, then, hold to their gods, in whom Paris does not 
believe ; let one respect what the other contemns. Beyond the 
Seine, God is Omnipotent ; within it He is only a myth, which is 
the laughing-stock of everybody. Paris should, therefore, become 
a city apart, governing itself in its own fashion, and leaving to 
the proviDces equal liberty. Everybody could thus go where his 
affinities led him; the Parisian believers in a God could go into 
the country to adore Him at their ease ; the provincial sceptic to 
Paris to swell the ranks of Free-thinkers. Paris would be a 
free Republic, while the provinces would choose a Bonapartist, 
Orleanist, or Legitimist Government, as it might think best. At 
present Paris has to drag the cannon ball (a French military 
punishment) of the Catholic provinces, while the latter are 
scandalized at being towed by an ultra-Voltairian city." 

After three months' blockade, the London Times came 
out with an explanation of her heroic endurance : — 

" If Paris has risen to heroism — if its endurance has surprised 
its friends and discomfited its enemies, the secret of its contempt 
for former pleasures is found in the new-born patriotism to 
which it has given life. Frenchmen are, in fact, at this moment, 
proving to the world that, though they may believe in nothing 
else, they believe in France, and their belief has given them a 
fortitude and a courage which their best friends would never have 
attributed to them." 

Here, then, is the concurrent testimony of England and 
France. The Frenchman says God is " a myth " in Paris 



I 



94 



■ — " a laughing-stock; " and that it is " an ultra-Voltairian 
city." And the leading journal of Britain clearly in- 
sinuates that its citizens believe in nothing but their city 
and France. 

Now is it likely that the God of nature and revelation 
would continue to tolerate a citylike this — a city denying 
his Word and even his existence, and, withal, arrogating im- 
perious pretentions, and exercising a world-wide influence ? 

A City of Blood. — In her was found the blood of pro- 
phets, and of saints. (Ver. 2^). That the application is 
to Papal Eome, we believe, but France has also her guilt 
to bear. 

There was a day when the Bible was highly esteemed 
among Frenchmen, and Protestantism flourished. — 

" The progress of the Reformation during the closing years 
of Francis I. and during that of his son and successor, Henry II., 
was rapid and continual. Several large provinces declared for 
the new doctrines ; and ' some of the most considerable cities 
in the kingdom, — Bourges, Orleans, Rouen, Lyons, Bordeaux, 
Toulouse, Montpellier, and the brave Rochelle, — were peopled 
with the Reformed. It was calculated that, in a few years, 
they amounted to nearly one- sixth of the entire population, and 
almost all classes ranged beneath the Reformation banner. The 
provincial nobles were almost all secretly inclined to it. There 
were, indeed, scarcely any classes which collectively adhered to 
Rome, except the higher ecclesiastics, the nobles of the Court, 
and the fanatic and licentious mob of the good city of Paris."* 

But the Protestants (then termed Huguenots) were sub- 
jected to long-continued and bitter persecution. 

" The Vaudois of Provence, a whole race of the most estim- 
able and industrious inhabitants of France, were exterminated 
because of their religion. Men, women, and children were slain 

* That mob has since turned infidel. 



in indiscriminate massacre, their cities were razed to the ground, 
their country turned into a desert, and the murderers went to 
their work of carnage with the priests' baptism on their swords, 
and were rewarded for its completion by the prayers and bles- 
sings of the clergy," 

Violence and persecution raged against the Huguenots r 
and in 1572 the butchery culminated in the horrible 
massacre of St. Bartholomew. 

" It was a premeditated and most infamous atrocity. On the 
24th August, 1572, at the noon of night, fit time for deeds of 
blood, the queen-mother and her two guilty sons were shivering 
in all the timidness of cruelty in the royal chamber. They 
maintained a sullen silence, for conscience had made cowards 
of them all. As they looked out uneasily into the oppressed and 
solitary night, a pistol shot was heard. Eemorse seized upon 
the irresolute monarch, and he issued orders to arrest the tragedy. 
It was too late, for the royal tigress at his side, anticipating that 
his purpose might waver, had already commanded the signal, and 
even as they spoke, the bell of St. Germain auxAuxerrois tolled, 
heavy and dooming, through the darkness. Forth issued the 
courtly butchers to their work of blood. At the onset the brave 
old admiral * was massacred, the Huguenots in the Louvre were 
despatched by halberdiers, with the court ladies looking on. 
Armed men, shouting 'For God and the king,' traversed the 
streets, and forced the dwellings of the heretics. Sixty thousand 
assassins, wielding all the weapons of the brigand and the 
soldier, ran about on all sides, murdering, without distinction of 
sex or age, or suffering, all of the ill-fated creed; the air was 
laden with a tumult of sounds, in which the roar of arquebus 
and the crash of hatchet mingled with blaspheming taunt and 
dying groan. 

" The populace, already inflamed by the sight of blood, followed 
in the track of slaughter, mutilating the corpses, and dragging 
them through the kennels in derision. The leaders, the Dukes 

* Coligny — a Protestant leader. 



96 



of Guise, Nevers, and Montpensier, riding fiercely from street 
to street, like the demons of the storm, roused the passion into 
frenzy by their cries — 'Kill, kill! Blood-letting is good in 
August.* By the King's command. Death to the Huguenot ! 
Kill ! ' On sped the murder, until city and palace were gorged. 
Men forgot their manhood, and women their tenderness. In 
worse than Circsean transformation, the human was turned into 
the brutal, and there prowled about the streets a race of ghouls 
and vampires, consumed with an appetite for blood. The roads 
were almost impassable from the corpses of men, women, 
and children — a new and appalling barricade ; 1 The earth was 
covered thick with other clay, which her own clay did cover.' 
Paris became one vast Red Sea, whose blood-waves had no 
refluent tide. The sun of that blessed Sabbath shone with its 
clear kind light upon thousands of dishonoured and desolate 
homes ; and the air, which should have been hushed from 
sound until the psalm of devotion woke it, carried upon its 
startled billows the yells of fierce blasphemers, flushed and 
drunk with murder , and the shrieks of parting spirits, like a 
host of unburied witnesses, crying from beneath the altar unto 
God, ' How long, O Lord, how long ! ' 

" The massacre was renewed in the provinces ; for seven long 
days Paris was a scene of pillage ; fifteen thousand in the capital, 
and one hundred thousand throughout the whole of France, are 
supposed to have perished, many by the edge of the sword, and 
many more by the protracted perils of flight and of famine. 

" Consider all the circumstances of St. Bartholomew's massacre ; 
— the confederacy which plotted it in secret ; the complicity of 
the king and court ; the snares laid for the feet of the Huguenots ; 
the solemn oaths of safety under whose attestation they were 
allured to Paris ; the kisses by which, like the Redeemer whom 
they honoured, they were betrayed to ruin ; ' the funeral meats 
which coldly furnished forth the marriage tables ; ' the dagger 
of wholesale murder, whetted upon the broken tables of the 

* The most frightful carnage of the late war was in August. 



97 

Decalogue, and put by priests and nobles into the hands of a 
maddened crowd ; the long continuance of the carnage — the 
original as it was of the Reign of Terror ; and, lastly, the up- 
lifting of red hands in thanksgiving, the ringing of joy-bells at 
Madrid and Rome, and the baptism of all this horrible butchery 
by the insulted name of religion ; — and we cannot avoid the 
conclusion that nothing in the annals of human history involves 
such flagrant violations both of earthly and heavenly law — that 
there is a combination of atrocious elements about it for which 
we look elsewhere in vain, and that it stands in unapproachable 
turpitude, the crime without a shadow and without a parallel."* 
It is true these massacres were perpetrated at the 
instigation of the Eomish Church ; but France was quite 
agreeable, and Paris was eager. 

Judgments Come. — How much she hath glorified herself, 
and lived deliriously, so much torment and sorrow give her, 
(ver. 7 J. 

Her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and 
famine, (ver. 8). 

Her torment and sorrow should come suddenly and un- 
expectedly in death, and mourning, and famine. 

The late fearful war brought it upon Paris. 

And thus in the words of poesy from which we have 

already quoted : 

" Behold, o'er her borders the foeman hath storm'd, 

And her guards sent to meet lum like straws swept away ; 
And now at her gate his battalions have form'd, 
And close and more close draw their iron array; 

" For her meats of the costly, her wines of the choice, 
She eats of the coarse, and drinks of the cheap : 
The smooth limbs that were wont in down beds to rejoice, 
On the straw by the bivouac watch-fire can sleep : 
And her brow hath ta'en sterness, and hardness her 
hand, 

And the lips that lisped love-songs sound words of 
command. 

* Punshon's "Huguenots." 



98 



" Nor the shot and the steel of the foeman alone, 

She has found — this soft wanton — endurance to face ; 
With worse waste of the heart, than the shots of the stone, 
The slow tooth of famine its way gnaws apace; 
And the warmth in her blood aiding fame to kill, 
The winter Frost creeps with its death-dealing chill. 

" And at last with the Famine and Frost has come Fire," &c. 
After all the havoc of battles came the terrible siege. 
At the time of capitulation the authorities had mis- 
calculated by eight days the quantity of provisions in the 
city. It was on the brink of starvation. Paris Famine 
Eelief Fund glared in the Advertisments of Newspapers. 
Had it not been for the most energetic efforts by the 
Prussian army, by France, and by London, the Parisians 
must then have succumbed to hunger. 

And Lamentations. — Alas, alas, that great city, that 
was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked 
with gold, and 'precious stones, and pearls ! For in one hour 
so great riches is come to nought, (ver. 16, 17.) 

Such a Beautiful City ! This exclamation sounded 
through the newspapers, and echoed through the length 
and breadth of the land. The King of Prussia was a 
Vandal, a vampire — anything but a gentleman. On the 
question being proposed, Why should Paris be exempted 
from the ordinary war-lot of fortified cities P* Quickly 
and tersely came the response, Oh, but it's such a beauti* 
fut city ! And the King and his armies generally had to 
encounter rounds of abuse for presuming to beleaguer a 
place so lovely. As if Justice must refrain from its course 
for Beauty. A people be allowed to luxuriate in all their 
arrogance and magnificence for Beauty. Beauty to be a 
pass-port to salvation ! — Oh, it's a mercy for the over- 

* If Paris was never to be bombarded she should never have been 
fortified. Every fortified place is liable to bombardment. 



99 



runners of Canaan, and the conquerors of Jerusalem and 
Babylon, that the London newspapers did not issue in their 
day. What withering anathemas would have fallen on 
their heads ! 

Beauty may be dazzling and paramount to mortals, but 
it is not so with God. If glitter and elegance were a prin- 
cipal consideration with the Almighty, Sodom would not 
have been consumed, Jerusalem and its temple would have 
been spared (and where was ever anything on earth sa 
glorious as Solomon's temple?) and Nineveh, Tyre, and 
other magnificent cities would have remained in pristine 
grandeur to this very day. And why spare Paris, if her 
only plea for forbearance is her pageantry ? Why should 
the correcting rod of justice be withheld, when all the 
remedies of mercy fail ? — External splendour has no 
necessary connection with the triumph of right. If vice 
is to be unpunished because enshrined in beauty, God's 
moral government must be at an end. 

A Bewailed City. Nations deplore her fate, but no one 
has nerve enough to fly to her rescue. They pity her 
distress, and bemoan her helplessness, because she was so 
rich, and great, and beautiful. But not a hand is lifted 
in her defence. And Kings and Cabinets, and Parlia- 
ments and Peoples, in the old world and the new, stand 
afar off, and mourn, saying, Alas, alas, that great, that 
mighty city ! 

We have been struck with some passages in the pro- 
phetic account of the ruin of the first Babylon. Two or 
three we append. 

" Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will do judg- 
ment upon her graven images : and through all her land the 
wounded shall mourn." 



100 



" Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though 
she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall 
spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord." 

" Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, 
and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is 
broken : for the Lord God of recompense shall surely requite." 
(Jeremiah li., 52, 53, 56.) 

And the present condition of Paris must be acknow- 
ledged to be critical. Speaking figuratively, a spark seems 
sufficient to enwrap her in conflagration. When their 
susceptibilities are so extreme that they will not submit 
to a German occupation — when the irritation is so intense 
that a line of demarcation has to be drawn in the city 
between the French and German quarters, lest a trifling 
disagreement should lead to a general massacre — whilst 
the city is so restless and explosive that her authorities 
fear to assemble their Parliament there — whilst there are 
100,000 armed men, with 200 pieces of cannon and many 
batteries of mitrailleuses who acknowledge no government 
but themselves,* and Montmartre bristles with Eed Ee- 
publican guns, pointed at the very heart of the city, it must 
be confessed that imminent peril still waits on Paris. 

And yet we hope the lessons designed will be humbly 
and contritely learnt, and that from 

"The plague, and dearth, and din of war" 

she may awake to a nobler life. 



A section we have prepared on the Prostration of 
France, with notices of the Peace, must be omitted for 
want of space, But it is possible that events may call for 
a Supplement. 



* March 18th. 



101 



THE MILLENNIUM. 

We will now set forth, and endeavour to prove, by the 
Word of God, the following propositions : — * 

i. The Gentiles are being " called," and their fulness is 
being " brought in." This concerns the present dispensa- 
tion, and is preparatory to the Millennium. 

ii. The Jews shall, towards the close of the present 
dispensation, and commencement of the Millennium, be 
restored to their own land. 

iii. Every form and variety of Error shall then be over- 
thrown. 

iv. A restraint shall also, at that time, be placed on the 
power and authority of Satan. 

v. A period of universal peace and righteousness shall 
be inaugurated — the period commonly known as the Mil- 
lennium. 

I. The calling of the Gentiles is a leading principle of 
the present dispensation. And herein Christianity differs 
from all other religions that have ever been recognized 
among men. Every other religion has been a localized 
religion : it has been national, sectional, particular : it 
has been intended for one particular nation, and one par- 
ticular people : and hence it has been recognized within 
certain definable and national limits. 

Thus : Confucius wrote and taught for China and the 
Chinese ; Guadama set forth his system of Budhism for 
the inhabitants of India ; Zoroaster gave a religion to the 
Persians ; Epimenides modified and expanded the Greek 

* The writer of the following pages is a respected Christian Minister. 
He has devoted considerable attention to the subject, and holds what 
are commonly known as strictly Millennial views. We do not agree 
with all of them. Nevertheless, we do not thimk it advisable to inter - 
fere with the symmetry of the argument by making any alterations. 
They are opinions held by many wise and godly men in different branches 
of the Christian Church. But we will, as we advance, indicate those 
opinions that we ourselves do not hold. Ed. 



102 



mythology for the Athenians ; and Numa Pompilius was a 
religious legislator, first for the kingdom of Eome, and 
then for the Eoman commonwealth and empire. And so 
with every land and nation : it has had its own national 
gods, its national rites and ceremonies, its national forms 
and habits of religious thought. And even the Mosaic 
economy, given amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, 
was designed and intended for the land of Canaan and 
the Jews. 

Christianity is the only religion that has ever been 
established, designedly and intentionally, for the benefit of 
the whole world. Hence there is nothing national, sec- 
tional, or particular about it. It goes to man in general, 
and to man universally, and for every man it has a 
message from the Most High God. It goes into " all the 
world ; " it has a message to " every creature." And 
herein there is not only a fulfilment of the purposes of the 
Lord concerning man's salvation, but also a direct refer- 
ence to the future Millennium of glory. 

That the Gentiles should be evangelized is a clearly 
revealed truth of the Old Testament prophecies. Take 
Isaiah xlii. 1, 6, 7. "Behold my servant whom I uphold; 
mine elect in whom my soul delighteth ; I have put my 
spirit upon him ; he shall bring forth judgment to the 
Gentiles. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, 
and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee ; and give thee 
for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles : 
to open the blind eyes, etc," — where we have a clear 
reference to the evangelization of the Gentiles — the words 
being applied by our Lord in his ministry to himself. And 
the aged Simeon glorified the Most High, who had given 
" a light to lighten the Gentiles." 

The Apostles went to the Gentiles. They preached to, 



103 



and evangelized, the Gentiles. And not only at Jerusalem 
among the Jews; but at Antioch, at Ephesus, at Corinth, 
and at Eome, among the Gentiles, converts were won to 
the faith of Christ, and the future universality of his 
kingdom was foreshadowed. 

And what has been the history of the Church of Christ 
during the last 1800 years ? It has been the history of the 
Gospel among the Gentiles. What has been the Church ? 
It has been a Gentile Church. "Who have been the minis- 
ters of the Church ? Gentile ministers. What is the 
Qhurch now ? A Gentile Church. Who are the most 
active evangelizers of the world ? The Gentiles. And 
who are most earnest in bringing the glory of the Lord 
home to the hearts of " God's people Israel ? " The Gen- 
tiles. And thus the word of the Lord is receiving its 
fulfilment : " That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and 
members of the same body, and partakers of the inherit- 
ance which is of Christ in the Gospel." The Gentiles 
are being called. 

But further, the calling of the Gentiles has a close con- 
nection with the destiny of the Jews. 

The Jews are rejected : the Gentiles are called. The 
Jews are dispersed : the Gentiles are being gathered 
together. And there appears to be a providential connec- 
tion between the destinies of those two peoples. 

St. Paul refers to the matter in Romans xi. 

The Jews were the " good olive tree : " the Gentiles were 
the " wild olive tree." Branches of the " good olive tree " 
were " broken off : " branches of the " wild olive tree " 
were " graffed in." That is to say : the Jews were re- 
jected, scattered, and dispersed ; the Gentiles were called, 
gathered together, brought home. And the Gentiles 
assume the position, and receive the blessings and privi- 



104: 



leges, which the Jews have forfeited, and of which they 
are deprived. And St. Paul says : ' ' Thou wilt say then," 
i.e, thou that art a Gentile, and of the " wild olive tree," 
but art called by the mercy of the Lord, and " graffed in 
thou wilt say, te The branches were broken off that I 
might be graffed in." But no ; we must be careful how we 
argue on such a question. The branches were not broken 
off that thou mightest be graffed in. It was not done 
intentionally, in that manner. It was not because the 
Lord loved thee more than he loved the Jew ; and it was 
not that he rejected the Jew in order to shew his mercy 
towards thee. No. "Because of unbelief they were broken 
off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but 
fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take 
heed lest he also spare not thee." 

St. Paul, therefore, simply directs attention to the fact. 
Because of their unbelief the Jews were rejected; the 
Gentiles are accepted in their faith. That is the fact. 
And thus, while the Jews, once so highly favoured, are 
wandering so far away from their Eedeemer ; the Gentiles, 
once so dark and benighted, are being brought near by 
faith. And there is a providential connection between 
their destinies, which will be seen further as we advance, 

II. The Jews shall again be restored to their own land. 

1. Eomans xi. 1 and 2. "I say, then, hath God cast 
away his people ? God forbid. God hath not cast away 
his people whom he foreknew." That is : He hath not 
wholly and utterly separated them from himself. They 
are scattered and dispersed ; but they are not " cast 
away." 

2. Eomans xi. 25 and 26. "Blindness in part hath 
happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be 
come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved' 1 And here note : 



105 



As they are not " cast away 11 for evert so neither are they 
all " blinded." There is a " remnant " now amoDg the 
Jews, who are being saved, " according to the election of 
grace," even as it was foretold by the Apostle. 

But the vast body of the Jews are " blinded." And we 
are told that this blindness shall contiuue " till the fulness 
of the Gentiles be come in." Then, when the " fulness of 
the Gentiles is come in," " all Israel shall be saved." 
Now, is there any impropriety in supposing that they shall 
be saved in their own land ? 

3. Acts i. 6 and 7. " Lord, wilt thou, at this time, 
restore again the kingdom to Israel ? " What did he say ? 
Did he say the kingdom had never again to be restored ? 
Did he say they were in error ? Did he say the expecta- 
tion of the kingdom should never be realized ? No. He 
simply said : " It is not for you to know the times or the 
seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." 
Hence, there was evidently no rejection of the idea of the 
kingdom being restored unto Israel. 

4. St. Luke xxi. 24. "And they shall fall by the edge 
of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations ; 
and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till 
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." 

The following is a simple historical statement. They 
did fall by the sword ; they were carried away captive 
into all nations ; and from that day to this — for more than 
1800 years — without intermission — Jerusalem has been 
trodden down of the Gentiles. 

How long shall it be so trodden down ? " Till the times 
of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." And when the times of 
the Gentiles shall be fulfilled shall it then be trodden down ? 
Evidently no. Then what is the plain meaning of this 
text P It is that, when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled^ 



106 



the J ews shall re-possess and re-inherit their own land. 
For the " bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles," in 
the phraseology of St. Paul, evidently corresponds with 
the " fulfilling of the times of the Gentiles " in the language 
of our Lord ; and " so, all Israel shall be saved." (1) They 
shall all acknowledge the Messiah ; (2) they shall all return 
to Jerusalem and the inheritance of Abraham. 

5. Jeremiah xiii. 6. " In his days Judah shall be 
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely*" In whose days ? In 
the days of the " righteous Branch " of the " House of 
David." In the days of the " king " who shall " reign and 
prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the earth." 

Let us suppose that this referred to the First Advent of 
our Lord — when he came as the Babe of Bethlehem. Was 
Judah then " saved ? " Did Israel " dwell safely ? " The 
history of the time answers " no." Then has the prophesy 
ever been fulfilled ? It has not. Judah has never been 
" saved ; " Israel has never " dwelt safely." But they 
shall some time. 

Eead verses 7 and 8. " They shall no more say, the 
Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of 
the land of Egypt ; but the Lord liveth which brought up 
the House of Israel from the north country, and from all 
countries whither I had driven them ; and they shall dwell 
in their own land." And here pause one moment. In 
connection with the " reign " of the " Branch," there is to 
be a return from the " countries " whither they had been 
" driven," to their " own land." Did they return in this 
manner from those M countries," to dwell in their " own 
land," when Jesus first came among men ? No. Have 
they ever returned ? No. " But " it may be argued " it 
refers to the return from Babylonish captivity under 
Cyrus." Then, is Cyrus this " Branch ? " Is He " the 



107 



Lord our Eighteousness ? " No. Then it does not refer to 
the time of Cyrus. And it was not fulfilled in the time of 
our Lord. In fact, it has never been fulfilled. 

But it shall be. The Jews shall return from the " north 
country," and from " all countries whither he has driven 
them;" they shall "dwell in their own land." " Judah 
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ;" and 11 so, 
all Israel shall be saved." 

6. Isaiah xi. 11, 12, 16. " And it shall come to pass in 
that day that the Lord shall set his hand the second time 
to recover the remnant of His people that shall be left 
from Assyria, &c. " Notice the phraseology : " The second 
time ;" the " remnant of his people shall be left." 

It is not the first time. That was under Cyrus. That 
was when He set His hand the first time. But He shall set 
His hand the second time," in that day; and he shall 
restore the 11 remnant of his people that shall be left." In 
fact, the Ten Tribes, who did not return under Cyrus ; 
who have never returned ; who are at present lost to the 
knowledge of man ; even the Ten Tribes shall be recovered 
and restored in the " day of the Lord of Hosts." * Isaiah 
ii. 12. 

For "He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and 
shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together 
the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth. 
And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His 
people that shall be left from Assyria, like as it was with 
Israel in the day that he come up out of the land of 
Egypt." 

And then what follows ? " And in that day thou shalt 
say, Lord, I will praise Thee ; though Thou wast angry 
with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest 



* This is more than we anticipate. Ed. 



108 



me." And here is another idea. This 12th chap, of 
Isaiah has a most important prophetical meaning. It is 
no less than a song of joyous thanksgiving for Israel, when 
they shall all again have been restored to their "own 
land." Other meanings it has ; but that is most certaiuly 
its primary meaning. 

III. The Millennium shall be characterised by the over- 
throw and destruction of every form and variety of Error. 

We notice here that we have no reason to expect that, 
when the Millennium commences, all the Gentiles shall be 
found a converted people. By no means. On the contrary : 
there is every reason to believe that not only Popery, 
Mahommedanism, and Infidelity, but also Idolatry, shall 
then be in active existence. And hence we may determine 
what is the meaning of the language of St. Paul, "until 
the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in." It does not 
mean that all the Gentiles shall be converted ; but that the 
" times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." The Lord Al- 
mighty has determined the time. He has " put it in His 
own power." He has arranged it according to his own 
will. And when the " times of the Gentiles shall be ful- 
filled," then the " fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought 
in." All who will accept of mercy among the Gentiles 
and be saved, shall have accepted mercy, and shall have 
been saved. The matter rests with themselves : they are 
free agents. But the mission of the church is now to the 
Gentiles ; and when the morning of the Millennium dawns, 
then the " fulness of the Gentiles " shall have been 
" brought in." Hence the present dispensation is emphati- 
cally and pre-eminently the dispensation of the Gentiles ; 
and it behoves us as Gentiles to be active and energetic 
in carrying the Gospel to the Gentiles, that a vast and 
mighty multitude may be the saved of the Lord 14 in that 
day." 



109 



But, at the commencement of the Millennium, there 
shall be the complete and final overthrow of Error. Then 
shall be the last great contest between truth and error, 
between light and darkness, between Emmanuel and 
Diabolus. And the truth, the light, our Emmanuel, shall 
gloriously overcome. 

Take, especially, Revelation xix. from ver. 11 to the end 
of the chapter. The language is most vivid and fearful. 
Much is said elsewhere in this book. But here the visions 
appear to be concentrated in one. Other vast and mighty 
changes will be effected, as has been said ; but here is the 
unfolding of the last and final strife. The " white 
horse " and its Rider, whose name is " Faithful and True," 
who comes to "judge " and to " make war." His omnisci- 
ence — his " eyes as a flame of fire His omnipotent 
sovereignty — " on His head many crowns ;" His Imperial 
Majesty — "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood" 
(probably referring also to His atonement) ; and His 
name — " the "Word of God." 

The " armies of heaven " follow him upon " white 
horses." Those are the saints glorified. He comes to 
" smite the nations " with the " sharp sword " that " goeth 
out of his mouth ; " and to " rule them with a rod of iron," 
i.e. with might that shall be irresistible. He also " tread- 
eth the wine-press of the fierceness of Almighty God." 
An expression very vivid, and of fearful import for the 
nations ; for He is " King of Kings, and Lord of Lords," 

And, besides, the contest between Christ and Belial is 
now to be finally decided. The controversy is to be deter- 
mined at last. An Angel cries to the fowls of the air to 
come to the " supper of the great God," and to feast on 
" the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh 
of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that 



110 



sit on them, and the flesh of all men " — i.e. of all who 
shall oppose him. 

For see, ver. 19. The "Beast, and the Kings of the 
earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war 
against him that sat on the horse, and against his army." 
Then comes the overthrow. The " beast was taken ; " so 
was the " false prophet ; " and these both received a con- 
dign punishment. They were " cast alive into a lake of 
fire burning with brimstone." Then the remnant were 
" slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse." 
They remained unburied on the field of battle ; and 44 all 
the fowls were filled with their flesh." 

And thus, when the 44 fulness of the Gentiles is brought 
in;" when the "times of the Gentiles are fulfilled;" when 
the Jews "dwell in their own land;" and when the rule 
of the "righteous Branch" shall be fully inaugurated; — 
then, that period shall be signalized by the total and com- 
plete overthrow and subversion of every form and variety 
of error. False religions and false philosophies shall all 
cease to be. 

The more fully to substantiate this opinion we refer to 
the 2nd chapter of Isaiah. We exclude verses 6, 7, 8, 
and 9, as they evidently refer to things with which the 
world is familiar. But let any one carefully study 
the remainder of that chapter, and then answer this 
question : Has it been fulfilled ? Has any of it been ful- 
filled ? Was it fulfilled in the days of our Lord P Or, has 
it been fulfilled in the history of the Church ? If so, 
where P and when ? 

It refers to a certain definite time — a time, certainly, 
that will be easily recognized when it arrives. Notice the 
following expressions : " in the last days," (verse 2) ; "in 
that day," (ver. 11, 17, 20); 44 the day of the Lord of 



Ill 



Hosts," (verse 12); and the day "when he ariseth to 
shake terribly the earth," (verses 19, 21). Here there is a 
certain period plainly specified ; and that period will have 
certain prominent and important characteristics — charac- 
teristics that will distinguish it from every other period 
that has ever been witnessed. 

Is it not to be identified with the period referred to in 
Revelations xix. ? Does it not refer to the final overthrow 
and destruction of error, and the inauguration of millennial 
glory ? And have we not in this chapter that complete triumph 
of the truth, and subversion of ungodliness, that we are 
taught to expect in connection with that blessed period ? 

The language is very forcible both in Rev. xix. and in 
Isaiah ii. In one chapter there is a representation of a 
great battle, awful carnage, and a great and glorious 
victory. In the other chapter we have the day " when He 
ariseth to shake terribly the earth," the " day of the Lord 
of Hosts " — when he exerts His might, and causes His 
great power to be known, — casting down everything that 
opposes the progress of His triumphal chariot. 

The period shall be signalized by the total and complete 
overthrow of idolatry. Isaiah ii. 18, " And the idols He shall 
utterly abolish." Again, Yerse 20, "In that day a man 
shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which 
they made each one for himself, to the moles and to the 
bats ; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops 
of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory 
of His Majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the 
earth." And thus, the final overthrow of idolatry is un- 
questionably identified with the day " when he ariseth to 
shake terribly the earth ;" and after that period idolatry 
shall no more prevail. 

Thus we have the overthrow of Popery and Mahomed- 



112 



anism in Eev. xix. ; and (so far) of Idolatry in Isaiah ii. 
Let us now see if we have any indications as to the issues 
of Infidelity. 

Take Isaiah ii. 11 and 17. "The lofty looks of man 
shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be 
bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that 
day." What does this mean? Is it not a reference to 
the intellectual manifestations of man ? For, in his intel- 
lectual manifestations is not man " lofty " and " haughty," 
and does he not exalt and magnify himself against the 
truth of the Lord ? 

Take the following : "I would advocate the reading of 
the Bible in the schools of England," said a gentleman 
who was a candidate for election to a School Board, " for 
the same reason that I would advocate the reading of the 
Sh aster in the schools of India, or of the Koran in the 
schools of the Mahomedans; — because it is the sacred 
book of the country." And so the Bible is degraded to a 
level with the Shaster and the Koran ; and^it is to be read 
simply because it happens to be the " sacred^book of the 
country." 

Another said, 11 I regard the Bible as a national epic, 
containing many beautiful thoughts, that may be ad- 
vantageously studied by the rising generation." And in 
this manner the Bible is placed on a level with Shake- 
speare, Milton, Young, Wordsworth, and Tennyson, as a 
" national epic, containing many beautiful thoughts, that 
may be advantageously studied." Placed on a pedestal 
certainly it is ; but there are other pedestals high as its 
own; and on these pedestals are other " national epics, 
containing beautiful thoughts, that may be advantageously 
studied." There is no reference to its Divine origin ; it is 
not said to contain Eternal Truth ; it is not exalted and 



113 



magnified above other books, around which other books 
may conveniently cluster and gather, but which it sur- 
passes and excels a thousand-fold. No. It is brought down 
to a common level with other books, and other books are its 
equals and compeers. 

And then, as regards the criticism of the Bible. The 
same principles of criticism are applied to it as are applied 
to any other author — to Homer, or Yirgil, or Ovid, or 
Spencer. Man makes his mind a great " verifying 
faculty " — the only certain and infallible test of Truth and 
Error and that which his mind assents to as true, that is 
held to be true ; that which his mind rejects as false, that 
is said to be false. Hence the miraculous and supernatural 
are rejected altogether. And it is said to be as impossible, 
as incredible, and as mythical, that a road could be made 
between walls of fluid water ; that iron could swim ; that 
the bones of a dead man could impart vitality to a corpse 
thrown into his grave ; or that a hungry crowd of over 
5000 people could be fed with five barley loaves ; — these 
things are said by these men to be as impossible, as in- 
credible, and as mythical, as are any of the marvellous 
and supernatural stories related by any of the authors 
just named : as, for instance, that Daphne was changed 
into a laurel ; that Hercules, when only an infant in his 
cradle, strangled the two serpents sent to destroy him j or 
that the " Eed-crosse Knight " accomplished all the prodi- 
gies attributed to him in the " Fairie Queene." What the 
mind of man cannot comprehend it rejects ; and ab initio — 
from the very beginning — as a ruling and fundamental prin- 
ciple — it objects to prophecies and miracles. Prophets may 
now and then be right, by a happy chance, just as fortune- 
tellers are; but prophesy, as a principle, is altogether 
excluded; while miracles are regarded as superstitions 



114 



and vulgar myths, if not downright impositions and shams. 
And thus, in the hands of these men — these " free-hand- 
lers " of the word of God, — the Bible becomes a mere 
fieshless and bloodless skeleton, containing a certain basis 
of historical truth, and a few good precepts and maxims : — 
containing thai — and nothing more. And when we think, 
again, of the fearful opinions of Socinians, Deists, Atheists, 
and Materialists, who advance step by step, from a denial 
of the atonement and of Christian doctrines, to a denial 
of the existence of the Deity at all, and the deification of 
matter, making nature itself to be its own God, and scout- 
ing the very idea of the existence of " spirit " whether in 
connection with matter (as the soul of man) or separate from 
matter (as disembodied spirits, or the Godhead) ; — I say, 
when we consider all these things, is it not clear that man 
is " lofty " and " haughty ?" And is not this the M loftiness " 
and " haughtiness " in the text we are considering ? 

But " the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the 
haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord 
alone shall be exalted in that day " — in the " day of the 
Lord of hosts " — " when he ariseth to shake terribly the 
earth." And that shall be the day when he comes in His 
glory — " to judge and to make war " — to " tread the 
wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." 

It is a grand idea — that he shall come personally to 
execute judgment on the wicked, and to inaugurate the 
Millennium. It is an opinion held by many wise and holy 
men — a grand and sublime idea — one of the grandest and 
most sublime in the conceptions of the human mind. Once 
he came as a man — the babe of Bethlehem — the 44 man of 
sorrows " — the " seed of the woman." He lived as a man, 
ate and drank as a man, travelled to and fro as a man, was 
wearied a and fatigued as a man, was reckoned and esteemed 



115 



as a man, and was despised and rejected as a man. But 
consider the difference when he comes thus personally 
in His glory. It will not be as a man, and as an equal ; 
it will be as a King and as a superior. It will be as 
a Monarch in his dominion — the Everlasting Monarch 
of the Universe. His " eyes as a flame of fire ; " " on 
his head many crowns ; " the ensanguined robe, the " ves- 
ture dipped in blood ; " the name written " on His vesture 
and on His thigh," King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
The armies of heaven attending Him ; the sword where- 
with He shall "smite the nations ; " and the awful majesty 
and power with which He shall " tread the wine-press of 
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Then 
the terrible battle with the legions of the wicked, and 
with the hosts of Hell ; and the fowls of heaven feeding 
on the flesh of the vanquished. It is a grand and sublime 
idea. Yerily it shall be the " day of the Lord of hosts" 
— the " day when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." 

Where shall be the " free handler" of the word of God 
in that day ? Where the Socinian, who denies the Atone- 
ment, and Christian Doctrine ? Where the Deist, even 
though his opinions had, erstwhile, been held with all the 
eloquence of a Chesterfield or a Yolney, with all the gloomy 
mysticism of Eousseau, or all the bloody terror of Eobes- 
pierre ? And where the daring Atheist and gross Mater- 
ialist ? Yes, where shall they be ? 

Shall these opinions be still maintained ? What, in view 
of that Majesty and glory? In view of that pomp and 
panoply ? in view of that kingdom and dominion ? It is 
not the " man of sorrows : " it is the " Lion of the tribe 
of Judah." And if the sight of an earthly monarch, 
dressed out in the trappings of royalty, be calculated to 
awe and subdue all those who stand in the presence ; how 



116 



much more shall the appearing of Christ, invested with 
the glory of His Eternal Eegality, awe and subdue those 
who shall stand in His presence ? Yes ! His very appear- 
ing shall confirm every attribute of His Divinity and every 
iota of His word ; and the ways of God to man shall be 
finally and for ever vindicated. The tongue of the slan- 
derer shall be silenced. And there shall not be one in the 
ungodly throng who shall not wish that his hand had 
withered ere he had written the calumny, and that his 
tongue had been plucked up by its roots ere he had uttered 
his blasphemies against the Most High. 

And the " lofty looks of men shall be humbled, and the 
haughtiness of men shall be bowed down ; and the Lord 
alone shall be exalted in that day"* 

Thus we think we have established the proposition, that 
at the commencement of the Millennium of Glory every 
form and variety of error shall be finally overthrown and 
destroyed. And in this shall be embraced Popery, Ma- 
homedanism, Idolatry, Infidelity, and every manifestation 
of false religion and false philosophy. The overthrow 
shall be signal and complete. 

IY. A Eestraint shall be placed on the power of Satan. 

Eev. xx. 1, 2, 3. It matters not whether Satan shall be 
literally " bound V with a " great chain." It is the idea we 
care for. And the idea evidently is that a restraint shall 
be placed on him, and that he shall not possess the 
great powers of deception and wickedness he possesses 
now. He shall no longer go to and fro like a " roaring 
lion." 

V. The last idea is that it shall be a period of Universal 
Peace and Eighteousness. 

1. Universal Peace. I refer, first, to Isaiah ii. 4. "They 

* The opinion that Christ will personally appear and reign is more 
than we can accept, En. 



117 



shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears 
into pruning-hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword against 
nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Has this 
prophecy ever been fulfilled ? Have they beaten their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning- 
hooks ? Doth nation not lift up sword against nation ? And 
do they learn war no more ? 

The second chapter of Isaiah has never yet received an 
adequate fulfilment ; and it shall not till the dawn of the 
Millennial morn. And then shall dawn, too, the period of 
universal peace and amity. Weapons of war shall be no 
more invented ; the scourge of war shall no more be sent 
forth ; fields shall no more be devastated, homes no more 
pillaged, the valleys no more be full of slain, and the 
rivers no more roll with blood ; and the cry of the mourner 
whose dear one has been cut down amid the carnage of 
the battle-field shall be hushed for ever. For " He 
maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth ; he 
breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder, and 
burneth the chariot in the fire." " Be still " then, " and 
know that I am God." 

Isaiah xi. also clearly refers to the future. It has not 
been fulfilled. It shall be fulfilled in the glory of the 
Millennium. Isaiah xi. 6, 7, 8, 9. " The wolf shall dwell 
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the 
kid," etc. — language that is supposed by some expositors to 
refer to what shall be the actual condition of the animal 
kingdom in the last days ; but by others to refer to the 
kindliness, amity, brotherhood, and peace, that shall 
be manifested by man to man, and shall generally prevail. 
We understand it in the latter sense, and perceive here a 
further proof of the period of Universal Peace. See also 
Hosea ii. 18, and Psalm lxxii. 
i 



118 



II. But not only shall there he universal peace : there 
shall also he Universal Eighteousness. It could not he 
otherwise. When the " fulness of the Gentiles " is brought 
in ; when the Jews are restored to their u own land ; " 
when Popery, Mahom me danism, Idolatry, Infidelity, and 
every form and variety of Error are overthrown and destroy- 
ed ; and when a Eestraint is placed on the power of 
Satan ; — then, most certainly, there shall prevail Universal 
Eighteousness. 

Psalm xxii. 27. " All the ends of the world shall re- 
member and turn unto the Lord ; and all the kindreds of 
the nations shall worship before him." Not " some," but 
" all." Habakkuk ii. 14. " For the earth shall be filled 
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters 
cover the sea." See also Daniel vii. 13, 14., Psalm ii. 8, and 
Psalm lxxii. 8. 

Thus we think that, by the light of God's Holy Word, 
we have maintained the following positions : — 

1. The Gentiles are being " called," and their fulness 
" brought in." 

2. The Jews shall be restored to their own land. 

3. Every form and variety of error shall be overthrown 
and destroyed. 

4. A restraint shall be placed on the power and influ- 
ence of Satan. 

5. Universal peace and righteousness shall prevail. 
There is another idea which we thought of numbering 

and placing in this list, viz. : the resurrection of the 
righteous dead, or, at least, of the martyrs. 

Eev. xx. 4. " And I saw the souls of them that were 
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of 

God And they lived and reigned with Christ 

a thousand years." 



119 



Thi3 is evidently a resurrection distinct from the general 
resurrection in verses 11, 12, 13, this being before the 
thousand years of glory ; that after. And the only 
question is : What does it mean ? 

Is it a resurrection, or is it no resurrection ? If it is 
not, then what is it? If the word "resurrection" does 
not mean resurrection, what does it mean ? Who is to say 
it does not mean resurrection ? 

If the word " resurrection " here does not mean resur- 
rection, then where does it mean resurrection ? If you 
deny that it means resurrection here, what is to prevent 
your neighbour from denying that it means resurrection 
anywhere ? And what will become of the statements of 
the Bible on such principles as those ? 

But " It is difficult." What is difficult ? " To have one 
resurrection at one time, and another at another time." 
It is not more difficult than it is to have any resurrection 
at all. The difficulty is not in believing in two resurrec- 
tions, but in believing in any resurrection. Once admit 
that God shall raise the dead, and then you will easily 
admit that He may raise them whenever He pleases. And 
when there is a distinct statement that God shall raise at 
least some of the righteous dead at the commencement of a 
period of 1000 years, and the remainder of the dead at the 
close of that period of 1000 years, then the most reason- 
able plan seems to me to be to take it as it stands, to be- 
lieve it, and to leave all the rest with Him, who orders all 
things according to His own will. But I go further : 

Take I Cor. xv. 23. " Christ the first-fruits : afterward 
they that are Christ's at His coming." Who was the first- 
fruits ? Christ. And who shall rise " at His coming ? " 
They that are Christ's. 11 Not they that are not Christ's ; but 
" they that are Christ's." This is important. Everyman, 



120 



shall rise "in his own order." And the "order" here 
seems to be, 1st. Christ; 2nd. They that are Christ's ; 3rd. 
" then cometh the end." The only difficulty is as to 
whether there shall be an interval of 1000 years between 
the resurrection of " those that are Christ's," and the 
"end," when he shall "deliver up the kingdom to God 
even the Father." St. John says there will be. 

See also: 1 Thess. iv. 16. "The dead in Christ shall 
rise first." Then "we which are alive and remain shall 
be caught up together with them (i.e. the dead who have 
been raised) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." 
Here the Lord shall descend from Heaven with great pomp 
and panoply. At his descending the " dead in Christ 
shall rise first." Then we that are alive and remain shall 
be caught up together with the " dead in Christ," to meet 
Him in the air. There is not a word here respecting the 
resurrection of the wicked. They do not rise. 

Once more. Philippiansiii.il. " If by any means I 
might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." What 
does St. Paul mean here ? Was there any doubt about 
his attaining unto the resurrection of the dead ? Is not 
the resurrection certain for every man ? What does St, 
Paul mean here in this argument — in verses 8, 9, 10, 11 ? 

But take a literal translation of the Apostles words : 
"If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection 
from among the dead ;" and we have a clear and distinct 
meaning. At His coming those that " are Christ's " will 
rise. " The dead in Christ will rise first." This will be 
" the first resurrection." And this will evidently be a 
resurrection not of all the dead, but from among the dead. 
Hence St. Paul desires to give every diligence and to 
make every exertion, that, when that day comes, he may 
share in its glory; that he may have part in the "first 



121 



resurrection ;" that he may be of those who are Christ's ; 
and that so he may attain unto the resurrection " from 
among the dead." 

It is questionable whether there is any reference at all 
in 1 Oor. xv., to the resurrection of the wicked. It is a 
joyful and triumphant argument, very comforting to the 
saints of the Lord. But does it embrace the resurrection 
of the lost ? Are such glorious terms used of the wicked ? 
Does it not refer exclusively to them that "are Christ's" 
— to the " dead in Christ " — to the " first resurrection " — 
to the resurrection of the saints ? At any rate, it is 
evident from the texts we have quoted that the lost will 
not rise exactly at the same time with the saved. Does not 
the Millennium come between the two events P* 

" One thousand years." Is this the literal year ? Some 
hold one opinion, and some the other. We cannot decide. 
We know that in prophetical language a " day " often 
means a " year," as in the " seventy weeks " of Daniel, 
which mean simply seventy weeks of days, i.e., 490 years. 
We have seen the same meaning in Eevelation. If it be 
so here, then this 1000 years means 365,000 years. Other- 
wise it is 1000 literal years. But which it is no man can 
say.f 

" Satan shall be loosed." During the 1000 years, a com- 
plete restraint will be placed on him. He will be " cast 
into the bottomless pit ; " he will be " shut up ; " and a 
" great chain will be placed on him." Why ? " That he 
may deceive the nations no more till the 1000 years are ful- 
filled." All this language is highly expressive, and evi- 
dently represents a complete curtailment of his power 

* Oar own notion is that the statement in Rev. xx. 4, relates to the 
Martyrs only. We think the resurrection of the rest of the righteous 
dead will be subsequent to the Millennium, and before the resurrection 
of the ungodly.— Ed. 

t We incline to the literal interpretation. — Ed. 



122 



and influence. But at the end of the 1000 years he shall 
be " loosed," and shall 11 deceive the nations." 

" Gog and Magog." Those words simply represent the 
principle of wickedness in the " four quarters of tbe earth ;" 
and the number of those who shall be seduced by Satan is 
" as the sand of the sea." But " fire shall come down 
from God out of heaven and devour them." Then Satan 
shall himself be cast into " the lake of fire and brimstone,... 
and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." 

Then shall come the resurrection of the remainder of 
the dead ; the great white throne; the opening of the books ; 
the general judgment ; and the final determining of the 
destiny of every one. And that is the period referred to 
by St. Paul when he saith : " Then cometh the end " — at 
the close of the dispensations. Then the reign of our Lord 
shall come to a close. His work shall be done. With the 
last judgment the final scene in His mission shall be wit- 
nessed. And " then shall he deliver up the kingdom to 
God even the Father." All " enemies " shall have been 
put under " his feet." Death shall have been robbed of 
its sting ; Hades of its victory ; and Death and Hades shall 
both be cast into the " lake of fire." Christ shall then re- 
sign the kingdom to Him who gave it to Him, and shall 
resume the position he had with his Father, through 
Eternity. 

And now it remains that we make a few general obser- 
vations on chapters xxi. and xxii. 

Of course, as we believe in the consecutive order of 
events in this book, we must admit that these chapters 
refer to a condition of things that shall be realized after 
the resurrection and judgment. It is not before the judg- 
ment ; and therefore it is not the Millennium — for the 
Millennium comes before the last judgment. It is after 



123 



the last judgment ; and it is evidently a representation of 
the condition of the Blessed. 

In the imagery in this chapter there seems to be some 
connection with this earth. There is a " new earth; " the 
"New Jerusalem" descends "out of heaven" evidently to 
the earth ; and its glory is seen from a " great and high 
mountain" — one of the mountains of the earth. 

What does it mean ? What has " heaven " to do with 
" earth ? " What connection is there between the " New 
Jerusalem" and the " earth? " And in what manner are 
the destinies of the saints thus linked with " earth ? " 

But where is " heaven ? " We are taught to think that it 
is " upwards." But which way is upwards ? Certainly the 
point in the heavens which is exactly over our heads at 12 
o'clock at noon, is exactly under our feet at 12 o'clock at 
night. And during 24 hours the vjhole circumference of 
the heavens passes over our heads. 

Again s while, at the present moment, we are about 
95.000,000 of miles on this side of the sun, six months 
hence we shall be 95,000,000 of miles on the other side of 
the sun. That is to say : in six months we shall have 
travelled 190,000,000 of miles through space, and at 
Christmas we shall be 190,000,000 of miles distant from 
where we are at Midsummer. So that, as a matter of fact, 
there are no two moments in the course of the whole year 
when " upwards" refers to the same point in the heavens. 

Where then is heaven ? It is somewhere, certainly; some- 
where in God's infinity ; somewhere in the immensity of 
space ; somewhere in the Almighty's boundless and illimit- 
able universe. But where ? I cannot tell. 

" Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy, 
Ear hath not heard its deep songs of joy." 

It is altogether fair and lovely ; it is altogether bright and 
beautiful; it is altogether happy and peaceful. 



124 



" Dreams cannot picture a world so fair ; 
Sorrow and death cannot enter there." 

For there is the " river of life ; " there are fruit-bearing, 
life-giving " trees ;" the hectic hue of sickness is nevei 
seen ; the wail of the mourner is heard no more ; and 
there " shall be no night there." "God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes." But if you ask me to say 
where it is, I answer once more that I cannot tell. God 
knoweth. And we shall know when we arrive there. 
Meanwhile we are content to wait and think. 

Is it very far away P Is it very far distant ? Is it a 
very long journey ? Are our friends very far off from us ? 
We cannot tell. We do not know. God knoweth. 

May not this earth itself be a grand rendezvous for the 
saints in eternity ? May they not visit it ? May they not 
re-possess it P May they not re-inherit, and re-inhabit it ? 
May they not be happy in it eternally ? 

There is a " new heaven " and a " new earth." What 
does this mean ? Take xxii. 3. " And there shall be no 
more curse." What does this mean ? Is it that there shall 
be no more curse in heaven ? Then how long has there 
been curse in heaven ? When did it enter ? What is its 
nature ? And how does it affect the inhabitants ? 

There is no curse there. There never was. There 
never can be. Yet it is said : " there shall be no 
more curse." We believe the phrase applies to this 
earth ; and that the meaning is that there shall be no 
longer the curse of evil in it. Let us look at it. Some 
men believe that this world will be altogether annihilated. 
We believe no such thing. We believe it no more than we 
believe that the sun will be eternally "darkened;" that 
the moon will become literally " blood;" or that the stars 
shall all together fall in dire confusion from " heaven " to 



125 



the " earth." Which is impossible. For if the earth is 

annihilated, how can stars fall from heaven to it ? Besides 

which, each star is a hundred times larger than the earth ; 

and therefore again, how can they all fall to it ? How 

could even one do so ? 

We believe differently. True it is that 

" Darkly hath the curse of evil swept across the earth ; 
Blighting every form of beauty ; blasting every scene of 
mirth ; 

Changing what was once a fair and Universal Paradise 
To a den of evil passions and a wilderness of vice." 

But is Satan to triumph so ? Surely not. Surely the 
curse shall not destroy for ever ; and surely the Lord 
Jehovah will avenge himself on Satan otherwise than by 
destroying the whole of his fair and beautiful creation. 

Will not the Lord most completely have avenged himself 
on Satan when that apostate rebel is confined in " ever- 
lasting chains under darkness ?" When he is restrained 
in the "lake of fire, burning with brimstone?" And 
when the earth is finally and for ever freed from the curse, 
and become the habitation of the Saints of the Most 
High ? Will he not, then, most completely have avenged 
himself on Satan ? And will not, in such a case, the 
destiny of this globe be glorious, perhaps even beyond all 
present human conceptions ? 

Instead, therefore, of believing that this earth will be 
annihilated, we believe it will undergo a most blessed 
change for the better. It will be regenerated, purified 
from every taint of evil, hallowed and sanctified eternally. 
The dark mischief of the Fall shall be undone ; the trail 
of the serpent shall be obliterated ; the deep stain of sin 
and crime shall be washed out. The Planet Earth shall 
be restored to its pristine purity ; and thus, renewed and 
restored, it shall, in truth, be a fitting Paradise for the 
Saints. 



126 



Not, indeed, that Heaven would, in any case, be confined 
to this Earth. By no means. At least, I would hope not. 
I would fain hope that Heaven will not be restricted to 
any one particular locality. 

The leading idea connected with Heaven is Happiness. 
But the happiness enjoyed by one Saint may not neces- 
sarily be of precisely the same nature as that enjoyed by 
another. "Mind" is differently constituted; "mind" 
possesses varying powers and capacities ; and 11 mind " 
realizes its happiness in different pursuits and modes of 
though t. 

We are inclined to think that Heaven is more a con- 
tinuation of Earth than we sometimes imagine. Of course, 
there will be no sin, no suffering, no care, no death. Each 
Saint will be perfectly holy, and the great centre of happi- 
ness will be Jesus. But the happiness of the Saints will 
be realized, by some in one pursuit, and by others in 
another. Heaven will be adapted to the capacities of all ; 
all will be essentially blessed ; all will be eternally happy ; 
but all may not realize their blessedness and happiness in 
precisely the same manner. And thus, while all will sing 
the " new song," — a song of glorious triumph in the name 
of Jesus, — yet they all will not be always singing, and 
doing nothing but sing : all will find such mental and 
spiritual occupations as are most congenial to their disposi- 
tions, and as are most calculated to render their happiness 
complete. 

Where, therefore, is Heaven ? We answer, Where God is. 
God is everywhere. And may not Heaven be everywhere ? 
We allude only to the possibility. 

When the spirit has left the body how far does it travel 
to reach Heaven ? Does it go to one of the stars or planets ? 
Where does it go ? 



127 



If it can go from Planet Earth to another Planet, to 
reach Heaven, there is no impossibility in its flying from 
star to star, and from planet to planet in Eternity. It will 
\)Q -possible. The only question is, whether it will be so? 
But we cannot tell. It is simply a thought and a desire. 
I should like to have it so. And it may be that those who 
desire to do so will be able to do so. 

At any rate we believe the Saints will be free to return 
to visit the Earth, and that they will do so. And we prove 

it by Eev. xxi. 

The " new Earth " is this earth regenerated and re- 
newed, freed from the taint of sin, purified from the curse. 
" There shall be no more curse.'' Thus it will be restored 
to all its former beauty and glory. Also it will be some- 
what changed : " there shall be no more sea." 

The order of events appears to be as follows : — 

1. The close of the present dispensation; 2. The Resur- 
rection of the Saints; 3. The Millennium ; 4. The Ressur- 
rection of the wicked and general judgment ; 5. The 
wicked shall "go away " into "everlasting punishment," 
and the righteous into " life eternal ; " 6. Then, this 
Earth shall be exposed to the action of fire, by which it 
shall he purified and regenerated ; 7. Afterwards, the 
Saints shall return to it in glory. Hence we sing. 
11 The city of saints shall appear." 

I will prove it. Rev. xxi- 9 ; " Come hither, and I will 
shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried 
me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and 
shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending 
out of heaven from God." 

Now what is the "bride, the Lamb's wife?" The 
Church ; the blood-washed ; the sanctified. And here this 
Bride, this Church is seen " descending out of Heaven 



128 

from God, having the glory of God." And this is after 

the general judgment, and after the saints have gone away 

into " life eternal." After these things the church, the 

"Bride "of Christ is seen, "descending out of heaven 

from God, having the glory of God." Now what can 

possibly be the meaning of this, except that the saints do 

actually return again to Earth ? Is it not evident ? And 

may we not believe it ? 

" Our mourning is all at an end, 
When, raised by the life-giving word, 
We see the new city descend, 
Adorned as a bride for her lord." 

But this city (Eev. xxi. 10) is not a literal "city." It 
cannot be. It is the " Bride : " it is the " Lamb's wife." 
That cannot be a material city. The " Lamb's wife " is 
the Church — it is the " Church of the first-born." There- 
fore the term city is used to represent the Church. And 
the Church will " descend out of heaven from God, having 
the glory of God." 

Of course if God said in plain language that he would 
let down a city out of heaven to the earth I would believe 
it. But here the " city " is the " Bride ;" and the 
" Bride " is the " Church : " therefore the city is the 
Church. And though it is added in verse 24 that " the 
nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of 
it ; " yet that is only added to keep up the idea. The 
"city" is the " Lamb's wife," and the "Lamb's wife" 
is the Church — the saved, the blood-washed. 

The dimensions of the " city " are given to show the 
harmony and uniformity of the church. Here there is dis- 
similarity and discord : but there it shall be similarity 
and harmony : there shall be the regularity and order of 
a well planned and constructed city. And it rests on 
twelve foundations — the twelve Apostles of our Lord — the 
first messengers of the Gospel and heralds of the Truth. 

H 112 82 



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